Matt Berninger (The National) to Headline New Kilkenny Concert Series
By Live at Castle Mills
with special guests
Lisa O’Neill
and Engine Alley
Saturday, 18th July 2026
Castle Mills, Kilkenny
General Admission Tickets €64.50 + fees
VIP Soundcheck Experience €79.50 + fees
(add-on, requires a general admission ticket)
Matt Berninger Cherry Tree fan club pre-sale:
Wednesday 25 March, 10:00AM local time
Sign up here
All tickets on general sale:
Friday 27 March, 10:00AM local time
from castlemills.ie
The baritone-voiced heart and soul of Grammy-winning band The National, Matt Berninger, brings his rare and captivating solo performance, celebrating his 2025 album Get Sunk, to Kilkenny on Saturday, July 18th for the inaugural Live at Castle Mills: a brand new tented concert event at Castle Mills, beneath the backdrop of Kilkenny Castle.
Audiences will be treated to an intimate yet expansive live show celebrating Berninger’s latest album – a sweeping and soul-stirring record that finds him resurfacing with clarity, vulnerability and wry humour intact.
Expect a setlist spanning Get Sunk alongside selections from his 2020 solo debut Serpentine Prison and carefully chosen moments from The National’s beloved catalogue. Berninger will be joined by special guests, acclaimed Irish folk singer Lisa O’Neill and beloved Kilkenny band Engine Alley for a night of rare intimacy with one of the world’s most recognisable voices.
Best known for the contemplative narratives and gorgeous emotional candour that have defined The National’s catalogue, Matt Berninger – vocalist and lyricist for Grammy Award-winning band The National – has long explored the fragile edges of identity and self-understanding.
His 2025 solo album Get Sunk emerged as both reckoning and renewal — an inhale after submersion. The album reflects on the constellation of people who shape us: parents, partners, siblings, old friends, strangers. Written following Berninger’s move from Los Angeles to Connecticut, the songs were inspired by new landscapes, shifting seasons and a rediscovered joy in creating.
Berninger’s songwriting has long garnered praise for its poignant clarity, jagged-edged wit and intimately emotive melodies. The National’s career spans ten studio albums, including First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track, both issued in 2023. Late 2024 saw the release of The National’s first proper live album, Rome. Together with his wife Carin Besser, Berninger produced the band’s 2013 feature-length documentary Mistaken for Strangers, directed by Matt’s brother Tom.
Outside of The National, Berninger formed EL VY with Brent Knopf (Menomena) in 2014. The duo released their debut album Return to the Moon the following year. Berninger’s “gorgeous” (Rolling Stone) solo debut, Serpentine Prison, came out in 2020, produced by the legendary Booker T. Jones. His second solo effort, Get Sunk, was released in May 2025.
Berninger is also a visual artist, and spent a decade as a creative director in New York City. There’s a fluidity between his work as a painter/sculptor and lyricist/vocalist: he paints on white boards of song titles and lyrics while working in the studio, and he created a massive canvas of a pink rabbit before he ever wrote The National song of the same name. Berninger’s latest medium is baseballs, on which he pens lyrics and poems across their white leather and red stitching. His songwriting is deeply rooted in his artmaking, as both lean toward fragmentary, collage-like curiosity. There is a porous boundary between artist, poet, lyricist and singer, and all contribute to Berninger’s creative wanderings
Renowned for her distinctive voice, fearless songwriting and spellbinding stage presence, Lisa O’Neill has become one of the most vital and respected figures in contemporary folk music. Her songs weave together history, politics, compassion and myth, delivered with a rare emotional honesty that has earned her widespread critical acclaim.
It’s been an extraordinary period for O’Neill, whose recent releases have cemented her reputation as a singular artistic voice. Her work has been critically acclaimed across the globe, by the likes of BBC 6 Music, The Guardian, Mojo, Uncut, NPR, The Irish Times and The New York Times. Her album All Of This Is Chance was widely ranked among the best releases of that year, with BBC 6 Music’s Gideon Coe naming it Album of the Year. A compelling live performer and natural raconteur, O’Neill’s concerts are known for their intimacy and intensity, moving effortlessly between stark, socially engaged songs and moments of warmth, humour and reflection. Audiences can expect material spanning her celebrated catalogue, alongside newer work that continues her tradition of giving voice to the unheard and overlooked.
Formed in 1989 by brothers Canice and Brian Kenealy with fellow Kilkenny man Eamonn Byrne, Engine Alley brought a sorely needed splash of surreal colour to the somewhat beige Irish scene of the early 1990s. They released two award winning albums A Sonic Holiday and Shot in the Light as well as the singles Mrs Winder, Infamy and the Flowerbox EP. Finding their ultimate drummer Paul O’Byrne in 1997, the band continued as an exciting live proposition into the 21st century and released their third “lost” album Showroom in 2018. This is their first show in two years – featuring songs from their heyday, some tasty covers and a slab of ad lib diversions that are always part of the Alley adventure.
Live at Castle Mills is organised by Castle Mills Events, founded by a music fan collective, including Willie Byrne and Darragh Butler.
They say: “Live at Castle Mills is something genuinely special. It’s about bringing world-class artists to Kilkenny in a setting that combines scale with intimacy — a beautiful space under canvas by the river, right in the heart of the city. It allows us to create an experience that feels both elevated and uniquely Kilkenny. We’re incredibly excited to launch it.”
The event is being launched in partnership with the Kilkenny Nighttime Economy initiative, taking the opportunity to show Kilkenny’s vibrant, diverse and unique evening and late night cultural scene. The venue is within easy walking distance of Kilkenny city centre, so attendees are encouraged to walk or use public transport where possible. For those travelling by car, city centre parking is available. Please note there is no parking on site.