A musician who builds the music
Ultan Walsh has been playing Irish traditional music for over thirty years. It was hearing Donal Lunny's bouzouki on Doublin' — the landmark album by Paddy Glackin and Paddy Keenan — that first showed him what the instrument was truly capable of. He's been chasing that sound ever since.
After years of playing underwhelming factory-made bouzoukis, he built his first bouzouki in 2012. That first instrument sounded good — good enough to keep going. What followed was a decade of deepening the craft until the instruments spoke for themselves.
Ultan has built bouzoukis for some notable players including Donal Lunny, Steve Cooney, Jimmy Crowley and Kyle Macauley.
Ultan builds up to twelve bespoke instruments annually, selling to players in Ireland and as far afield as Portugal, Finland and the United States.
His workshop is near Nohoval, 10km outside Kinsale — a town he's been part of for years, playing the weekly session at the Tap Tavern for almost two decades. The music and the making have always been the same thing for Ultan.