The Coronas at Ceol on the River, Harriet Island (August 7, 2025)

The Irish Fair of Minnesota is one of the largest annual festivals of its type in the country, with a full three days of events. Taking over Harriet Island in downtown St. Paul, the Irish Fair will have half a dozen stages for music and dance events, and tents and space for plenty of food, drink, crafts, and sports. And with all of that, this year they are expanding with a Thursday night event, Ceol on the River (ceol being the Irish word for music). Three bands, headlined by alternative rock band The Coronas kicked off the first ever event.

The Celtic Junction Arts Center Stage was under a large tent, making the muggy summer evening a bit more manageable. Coming up first was The Belfast Cowboys, who we last saw on St. Patrick’s Day at Turf Club. We got a small joke at the start, “the last time we played Irish Fair we got flack for not playing ‘Irish music’, so if you’re expecting jigs and reels, you’ll have to wait a little longer”. As expected, the nine-piece band opened with a Van Morrison cover of Wild Life and that brass section was already in high gear, particularly during a Vic Volare sax solo. Lead singer Terry Walsh was sporting a Belfast Cowboys baseball jersey that was a pretty choice look. These guys are a professional band and at the simple call from Walsh, moved right into the next song. Cleaning Windows got us the first coordinated dance moves from the four brass members, and some minor modifications to lyrics for a more St. Paul specific versions was a clever if small add. Dan Kowalke’s guitar solos on several of the early songs was a good anchor to the rock feel. With four vocalists at various points, The Belfast Cowboys never lacked for a full sound to their numbers.

Announcing that the St. Dominic’s Trio (one third of the band) had just been invited that morning to play at a festival in Galway in November got a nice round of cheers from the audience. Sticking with the horse that got them there, The Belfast Cowboys stayed with the Van Morrison songs, and Bright Side of the Road had Walsh break out the harmonica for the opening intro. A sort of call and response with the three back up vocalists contrasted by the four brass players was a nice bit of fun. I was impressed how on top of the Van Morrison catalogue the band was, as they performed Down to Joy, a 2025 release (and I will admit, my first listen to it was their cover). Another team drink (you have to believe they were swearing it out as fast as they were putting it in), led to a funky sound for Fire in the Belly and nice sax work from Paul Gronert. Days Like This got some dancing couples on the floor in front of the stage. Finishing up their set with the semi-epic Into the Mystic, The Belfast Cowboys had done their job, getting the crowd warmed up.

Róisín O was up next. With two albums, the most recent being 2022’s Courageous, Róisín O is a folk singer from a rich musical family, with her mother Mary Black being a well-known folk singer and her brother Danny O’Reilly the lead singer of the evening’s headliner. She came out alone on acoustic guitar and apologized for sitting, “but I’m extremely pregnant”.

Róisín O’s sense of humor was apparent right away as the first song was dedicated to her unborn child and was titled You Owe Me a Drink. All I can say is: What. A. Singer. That slight Irish lilt in her vocals was the cherry on top, but great singers always shine through. Switching to keyboards on the third song, she had a song written for an ex-boyfriend (Heart + Bones) who she realized she actually loved. Róisín O was crafting a story in her banter and connecting the songs for a stronger impact and it was very effective. Chris Pratt was the summation of the early story (spoiler alert: they got back together). Her keyboardist and back up vocalist added a nice layer and Róisín O was still nailing those notes even with a baby “pushing up against the diaphragm”.

Props to the set guy (turned out to be the tour manager Terry McGuinness) who was wildly efficient in changing guitars and helping move things along, including positioning the on-stage fan to help. A new song from last winter called Magic was an ode to her mom and reflecting the child of a performer who was often on the road. The emotional resonance was obvious and that love shone through. A solo vocal song followed and continued to let Róisín O let her vocals fly, and the late addition of backup vocals were delightful. An amusing bit of being asked if she knows person X from Dublin (“No, it’s a big city”) was followed by her recognizing someone who had just come into the tent (“I haven’t seen him in like six years!”). An acoustic version of 2023 had Cian MacSweeney on saxophone and Róisín O back on acoustic guitar. Closing with a cover of The Cranberries’ Dreams was an excellent choice and let the vocals absolutely fly high to the close.

The headliners, The Coronas, were the final act. The band is an extremely popular band in their home country, with all of their last four albums, including 2024’s Thoughts & Observations, hitting number one on the charts there. The trio consists of Danny O’Reilly (vocals, keys, & guitar), Graham Knox (bass & guitar), and Conor Egan (drums), but on this tour also included Lar Kaye (guitar), Róisín O (keyboards & backing vocals) and Cian MacSweeney (keys, sax, and backing vocals).

Opening was their hit Confirmation, and it was outstanding as a first song. Unsurprisingly, O’Reilly was also a compelling singer and with his sister on backing vocals, this was pretty tremendous. O’Reilly jumped down and went into the crowd on the second song and I think it was at that point that many in the audience realized how good of a band they were witnessing. The Long Way was straight alt rock perfection. A bit of explaining that the term haunted could actually mean lucky, they rolled into that song, with O’Reilly draped over bassist Knox in a cute moment.

That’s Exactly What Love Is was a duet for brother and sister and was a highlight of the early going and included a crowd sing along. Starting the next number solo on guitar for the opening verse, the rising swell of the rest of the band on the chorus was exactly what you would hope for. O’Reilly dripped charisma and the way his face brightened when he smiled had some crowd members swooning. Ghosting was a brief but fun song, and was followed with O’Reilly back on keys for the rollicking Speak Up, with MacSweeney back on sax.

After introduction of the band, Róisín O came up to take lead vocals Lost in the Thick of It. Going back to an early song had a whole section of the crowd singing and dancing along and the band fed off that energy. Give Me a Minute was a bit of a power ballad from The Coronas and had O’Reilly back at the very edge of the stage. MacSweeney got a number on co-lead vocals on Write Our Own Soundtrack and was all over the stage with his moment. O’Reilly went back into the audience and worked his way well towards the back of the tent, giving fans old and new a personal moment with high fives and occasional hugs. A straight up rock song showed a good curation of the set list as we headed into the final stretch of the main set. Saying this was the last stop of the American tour, O’Reilly spoke of the magic of an intimate venue before the band finished on Heroes or Ghosts.

The first song of the encore wasn’t on the printed set list, but Warm was sung acoustic and solo for a couple that O’Reilly had met prior to the show. In contrast, Addicted to Progress was a raucous banger. San Diego Song was semi-apologetically introduced as “a drinking song, we were young”, but there was no need for The Coronas to apologize. Having played a brilliant, twenty songs set, The Coronas had put an exclamation point on their American tour, and had set a high bar for the first Ceol on the River and an outstanding start to the Irish Fair of Minnesota.