Celtic Duo Four Shillings Short Begins Farewell Tour on South Oregon Coast

Published 07/14/26 at 7:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Port Orford, Oregon) - After 31 years of touring in the US and Ireland, Four Shillings Short is calling it a day.

The long-running Celtic and world music duo is launching their farewell tour of the United States in Summer 2026, wrapping up in Winter 2028 after three decades of providing reasons to jig. As part of the tour, the group will return to the Oregon coast in July 2026 for three free concerts sponsored by the Friends of the Langlois and Port Orford Libraries.

Their riveting shows blend traditional and original music from Celtic traditions, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, India and the Americas. The duo is known for playing more than 30 instruments, including hammered and mountain dulcimers, mandolin and bouzouki, recorders, tinwhistles, sitar, charango, bowed psaltery, banjo, Native American flutes, bodhran, guitar, ukulele, doumbek, darbuka, spoons and the medieval krumhorn.

The husband-and-wife team of Aodh Og O’Tuama of Cork, Ireland, and Christy Martin of California met in 1995 at St. Michael’s Alley in Palo Alto, then one of the leading folk and acoustic venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. They married the following year and began national touring in 1997. Their first U.S. tour included 60 concerts in 90 days across 30 states, covering 30,000 miles.

Four Shillings Short perform about 80 concerts a year, have released 13 recordings and continue to tour full-time at festivals, theaters, libraries, schools, churches and community venues. They also lead archaeology, music and folklore tours in Ireland each May and June.

O’Tuama, raised in a family of poets and musicians, holds a music degree from University College Cork and completed a Stanford University fellowship in Medieval and Renaissance performance. He performs on tinwhistles, recorders, medieval and Renaissance woodwinds, doumbek, darbuka, bowed psaltery, Native American flute and spoons, singing in English, Gaelic and French.

Martin began studying North Indian sitar at age 15 with Tony Karasek and Rahul Sariputra. In her twenties she took up hammered dulcimer, studying with Maggie Sansone, Dan Duggan, Cliff Moses, Robin Petrie, Tony Elman and Glen Morgan. She also plays mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, banjo, guitar, bodhran, charango, medieval psaltery and ukulele, singing in English, Irish and Sanskrit. https://www.4shillingsshort.com

CONCERT SCHEDULE

Sunday, July 26, 2026
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Celtic, Folk & World Music Concert
Dragonfly Farm & Nursery
49295 Highway 101, Langlois
Information: langloislibrary@gmail.com or (541) 348-2066
Presented by the Friends of the Langlois Library

Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Port Orford Library
1421 Oregon St., Port Orford
(541) 332-5622 • [www.polibrary.org
Presented by the Friends of the Port Orford Library

11:00 a.m. to Noon
Around the World in 30 Instruments

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Celtic, Folk & World Music Concert

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