Sold out: Ryan McMullan

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Portaferry's very own Ryan McMullan is coming home for Christmas and he's doing a very special Christmas gig for us!

Writing songs and then touring the world with them: that's the dream for any singer-songwriter. And for many years that was the dream that Ryan McMullan was chasing. The Portaferry native is blessed with a voice that can shift effortlessly between the ethereal and the guttural, and a prodigious songwriting talent to match. Since the early days of his career he garnered significant attention from industry heavyweights, including Ed Sheeran, who called Ryan's voice a 'rare jewel', and Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, who likened his voice to that of an angel. There was even a film made documenting the album-making process: Debut directed by award-winning filmmaker Brendan J. Byrne and shown at Galway Film Fleadh and on the BBC.

But suddenly Ryan had to cancel everything due to a severe mental health crisis. In his own words: "When Covid hit, I was left with a huge hole in my life. My identity felt like it had been taken from me and during that initial six-month period I felt imprisoned in my own home..…"

The version of his album Redesign that you hear today is down to a recalibration of Ryan's sound and aesthetic, but it also refers to a redesign of his mind, too. Having already established himself as a talent to be reckoned with, even bigger things await Ryan McMullan once Redesign is finally released on August 26th.

Writing an album about love in its various forms - love for his family, his new wife, his friends or even his business associates - has aptly set the scene for an illustrious future, and there is talk of how album number two will take another creative leap forward.