Popular Midlands family band are going to the races at Offaly border venue

MIDLANDS' based musical maestros The Wrafters have a special race-day double in store for fans in the next few days.

With its July 11th race-card just days away, the famous Kilbeggan Races will once again play host to Peter, Conor, and Thomas of the Wrafter Family Band during the course of the day's competition. Later that same evening, the talented trio will continue to entertain many of the day's racegoers in local venue Larrigy's, swinging back into action from 10pm.

From the sitting room of their Kilbeggan home to stages of all shapes and sizes all across the country, music is, and always has been at the heart of all that matters most for the Wrafters.

The family band usually sees mam Noreen and daughter Aimee join dad Peter and brothers Conor and Thomas on stage, with the three lads also hitting the road as simply 'The Wrafters'.

Since first coming to national attention with their energetic yet wholesome rendition of 'The Blarney Stone' on The Late Late Show in March of 2017, the Kilbeggan family have gone on to clock up a list of achievements that certainly belies their still tender years, with Thomas and Aimee yet to even wave farewell to their secondary school days.

READ NEXT: Offaly woman graduates with honours from Galway University

The Wrafters have opened for Nathan Carter, The High Kings, Johnny McEvoy, The Fureys, George Murphy, The Tumbling Paddies, The Whistlin' Donkeys and more, whilst also enthralling audiences with stunning performances in locations as historic and iconic as Leinster House, the G.P.O., and even the 3Arena where they performed in front of pop icon Boy George.

They were also finalists on TG4's Realta Agus Gaolta, and were on hand to help Daithi O' Se and Maura Derrane entertain viewers of RTE's Today show during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Their brand new single – 'That Tune' (set for release this summer) - will also be their first ever original release, and will mark their first recorded output since the launch of their debut EP, 'The First Verse', in 2019.

In 2022, Conor was hailed by no less an authority than WeBanjo3's Enda Scahill as being, "... one of Ireland's finest banjo players...", when he was selected from a nationwide search to join the band on stage in Galway. Conor, who certainly knows how to let his banjo do his talking for him, is no stranger to such praise having received a similar compliment from the playwright Rebecca Miller, wife of Oscar history-maker Daniel Day Lewis, when the couple chanced upon a spur-of-the-moment performance in Griffin's Bar in Clifden back when he was just thirteen in 2018.

READ NEXT: Singing star Brendan Shine revisits Offaly hall for anniversary celebrations

The Wrafter Family Band have also been special guests of Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan on his Shannonside FM radio show, and have previously delighted audiences at events of national renown such as the Tullamore Show, the National Ploughing Championship, and - of course - the greatest stage of them all for trad musicians in Ireland, the Fleadh Cheoil.

~ Follow 'The Wrafter Family Band' on Facebook and Instagram, and 'The Wrafters' on Instagram. For further information on summer shows over July and August, check out www.thewrafters.com