Final year BEd Primary Music student, Stephen Rooney, played for President Barack Obama during the American President’s state visit to Ireland on 22-23 May. He performed as a member of the traditional group Ciorras at the public concert in College Green in Dublin, which preceded the President's official speech.
Stephen is an accomplished Irish Traditional Music performer of the guitar and banjo and he has performed widely. In Spring 2010 he was invited to participate in the TG4's Lorg Lunny, a fly-on-the-wall television documentary series that chronicled week-by-week the formation of a new traditional band by the well-known traditional musician Dónal Lunny. The band that resulted was Ciorras.
In addition to his musical activities and his college studies, Stephen has also just been elected Vice-President of the College Students' Union for the coming academic year.