Tradoodle Festival for Children is Ireland’s only traditional arts festival dedicated to children and families. Tradoodle presents a jam-packed programme for children featuring traditional musicians, singers, storytellers and dancers working alongside artists and creatives from the fields of visual arts, theatre and puppetry. Tradoodle Festival is presented by Ceol Connected in association with Monaghan County Council and Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan.
Our annual festival in Co. Monaghan is the pinnacle of our year, dedicated to celebrating children as both audience members and creators. Each year, Tradoodle showcases a thoughtfully curated selection of high quality, joyful and engaging workshops and performances from the finest musicians and artists. With a wide variety of genres, themes, and age groups represented, and with artists hailing from Ireland and around the world, there’s something to captivate everyone.
We invite children into theatres, community settings, outdoor settings, and also bring the festival to their schools, preschools, playgrounds, and local libraries. Our festival upholds and celebrates every child’s right to engage with and participate in the arts. We respect the depth of children’s understanding and aim to create spaces that are safe, welcoming and inclusive. We place the experience of children at the heart of what we set out to achieve.
Above all, we aim to ignite the joy and excitement of live artistic experiences, fostering and nurturing that unique festival with friends, family, childcare educators and teachers that leaves children inspired and eager for more.
Tradoodle’s purpose is to nurture children’s innate creativity and curiosity for the world around them through their experience of the traditional arts – traditional music, song, dance and storytelling.
We do this by:
Curating an exciting arts festival that includes workshops and performances for children that take place in preschools, schools, libraries, venues, outdoors and in community settings.
Presenting experiences of traditional arts alongside other art forms to facilitate rich and meaningful experiences of the arts in their broadest sense.
Encouraging and enabling families, teachers and communities to overcome barriers to children’s participation in the arts.
Supporting traditional artists across Ireland to create and present innovative, meaningful and joyful work for children.
Advocating for children’s right to participate fully in the cultural life of their community.
Thomas Johnston
Founder, Artistic Director and Executive Producer
Thomas is the Founder and Artistic Director of Ceol Connected, a performing arts and education company that produces Tradoodle Festival, artist residencies, educational programmes, albums and critically acclaimed touring productions for young audiences.
Since 2011, he has co-created and produced 11 touring Ceol Connected productions including The Land of a Hundred Little Hills (2022-23) which was commissioned by The Patrick Kavanagh Centre and produced with the National Concert Hall and Draíocht Arts Centre. He is the co-producer and musical director of When the Moon Spun Round, an aerial dance and traditional music spectacle with Fidget Feet Aerial Dance that will tour to 6 venues in 2025 supported by the Arts Council.
His work in the area of multisensory arts for children with additional needs includes establishing Ceol Connected’s annual Sounding the Senses multisensory residency; co-creating Lullaby Leaf, a multisensory immersive theatre show for children with complex needs that will tour in 2025; and developing/facilitating a series of CPD workshops for artists and educators who work in this area.
In 2015, he completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship with Music Generation in partnership with St. Patrick’s College (now DCU). This research entitled Possible Selves in Music presented a new model for performance music education in Ireland which supports powerful and positive outcomes for children and young people. Previous to this, his PhD (2013) at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick was an investigation into the place of Irish traditional music in post-primary music education in Ireland.
Karl Doherty
Associate Producer
Karl Doherty has joined the Tradoodle team in 2024 as our new Associate Producer. Karl is the musical director of An Teach Ceoil music school in Donegal where over 100 children from across Donegal receive music lessons. He has been the director of the Mary from Dungloe International Arts Festival’s An Lá Gaelach for over 8 years. He is now the co-founder of Draíocht na hÓige youth orchestra that arranges music for over 40 young people across Donegal.
Karl is also a music educator and performer holding an undergraduate BA degree in Irish Music and Dance from the University of Limerick and a Postgraduate Diploma in Secondary Education (Music) from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Boasting 13 All-Ireland Champion titles, he brings a wealth of musical expertise into any role that he takes on. Over the years he has toured Ireland and abroad, performing across Europe, Asia, and the US – including Disney World and Universal Studios, Orlando.
Eimear Walsh
Digital Marketing
From Dingloe Co. Donegal, Eimear Walsh is a final-year Digital Marketing student at the Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone (TUS). Passionate about all things digital media, Eimear has had the privilege of working with the Mary From Dungloe International Arts Festival, Fleadh Cheoil Dún Na nGall and Roscommon GAA, gaining valuable experience in event promotion and community engagement. Alongside her digital pursuits, traditional Irish music holds a special place in her life. She has been actively involved with Meenacross C.C.E., playing the concertina and singing in various pubs around Dungloe. This year, Eimear is excited to bring Tradoodle to life online, blending her love for traditional music and digital innovation
Lisa Mahony
Production Manager
Lisa studied Drama and Theatre studies at Trinity College, Dublin and has worked for more than a decade as a freelance production manager and technician.
She also worked for several years at the Project Arts Centre and was the first Head of Lighting at The Lir Academy. Companies she has worked with include Ceol Connected, Corn Exchange, Teac Damsa, Coiscéim, Theatre Lovett, Cahoots NI, Pan Pan, Liz Roche Company, Junk Ensemble, Brokentalkers and Field Day, and she has toured nationally and internationally with many of these. She has also worked for Dublin Theatre Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Galway International Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, and at far too many Edinburgh Fringe Festivals to remember. She is delighted to be working with Tradoodle Festival.
Tradoodle Festival would not be possible without the collaboration of partners who share our values, who are excited and inspired by children’s arts and creativity, and who like to dream about and explore new possibilities.
We are always open to developing new relationships with collaborators who share our values, our passion and our ambition in the world of arts and creativity for children.
Ceol Connected
Tradoodle is produced by Ceol Connected, an impassioned company that strives to create meaningful, beguiling, virtuosic, fantastical, and gloriously joyful work for young audiences that is of the highest quality and that draws inspiration and intrigue from the world of traditional arts.
Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan
Since 2021, Tradoodle have shared an enduring partnership with Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan, a music education programme whose mission is to empower children and young people to realise their full potential through access to, and participation in, high quality performance music education.
We have collaborated to create the TRADOODLE BIG BAND, a group of inspiring young musicians from across Counties Monaghan and Cavan who have headlined Tradoodle Festival with renowned bands including Goitse (2022), FullSet (2023) and Téada (2024). Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan also supports our wider artistic programme through matched-funding for a range of projects and initiatives.
National Childhood Network
Tradoodle and the National Childhood Network have collaborated to bring traditional arts to childcare settings across Monaghan and further afield via Tradoodle TV. Each year, Tradoodle works with a range of artists to design online workshops which the National Childhood Network then shares with their wide network of childcare settings. In 2023, over 300 childcare settings (a minimum of 664 children) across Ireland participated in Dancing on the Hilltops, a series of sean nós dancing workshops created by Edwina Guckian.
Íontas Theatre, Arts & Community Centre
Íontas is at the heart of the community in Castleblayney and is a valued Tradoodle partner. Each year, a highlight of our programme is Tradoodle Family Day at Íontas which incorporates a diverse range of workshops, sessions, exhibitions and performances.
Garage Theatre
The Garage Theatre in Monaghan town provides a wonderful focal point for our Tradoodle Family Day. Each year, a highlight of our programme is Tradoodle Family Day at the Garage Theatre which incorporates a diverse range of workshops, sessions, exhibitions and performances.
Tradoodle is extremely grateful to Monaghan County Council, the Arts Council and Creative Monaghan whose continuing support enables us to run our annual festival and support the development of artists creating work for young audiences.
