Eileen O'Shaughnessy

Eileen O’Shaughnessy (she/her) is a fourth generation Irish-American nuclear abolitionist organizer, educator, and musician living on Tiwa lands in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eileen teaches courses on nuclear issues, environmental and racial justice, and gender studies at the University of New Mexico and the Central New Mexico Community College. She is completing a PhD in Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies at UNM. In 2016, Eileen co-founded the grassroots organization Demand Nuclear Abolition (DNA). DNA is a multi-racial and multi-generational space for students, activists, and artists to dismantle nuclear colonialism through education, activism, and art. When she’s not teaching, Eileen is also a professional musician and plays original social justice folk music solo and with her band “Eileen & the In-Betweens”, which has toured around the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Music

Eileen is the front woman, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist for the celebrated social justice indie folk band Eileen & the In-Betweens. She has released four full-length albums of original music (You Know [2010], Everything is Alive [2015], We Ain’t Givin’ Up [2017], This is How We Show Our Love [2022]) and she has been invited to perform her uplifting social justice music across the U.S. and Canada. Eileen's songwriting draws on the age-old tradition of mobilizing music as a tool for social change in line with the "greats" such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, while her enchanting voice draws comparisons to Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, and Edie Brickell.  Eileen draws sonic inspiration from her Irish-American & Celtic heritage, folk roots, Americana, pop, and world music. At the age of 15, Eileen began the life-long habit of teaching herself instruments: including drums, guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, and harmonica.

Eileen & the In-Betweens completed a two-month tour of the U.S. West Coast and Canada in the summer of 2017. The tour was titled “We Ain’t Givin’ Up: Social Change & Music” and included collaborations with social justice and environmental justice groups such as Showing Up for Racial Justice, Nevada Desert Experience, FLIP Fest in Canada (LGBTQ grassroots art festival), and many others.  In over-ten years of being a touring musician, Eileen’s show highlights include: playing alongside Reverend William Barber in his revival of the Poor People’s Campaign, opening for Gloria Steinem, performing on KUNM’s Ear to the Ground series, performing on the New Mexico Song Swap at the Art of the Song Series (nationally syndicated on NPR), and playing the Albuquerque Women’s March in front of 10,000 people.

“She is related to the 15th century female Irish chieftain and rebel, Grace O’Malley, known as the Pirate Queen…and she sings with a warm and sunny confidence that make you believe that however dark things may look, there is a path forward to the light.”

-Mel Minter, Albuquerque Magazine (August 2018) Complete article HERE

“Eileen Shaughnessy has risen in my esteem to the top rank of Albuquerque artists. Her song craft is exceptional and is especially important now...in a time of bitterness and activist burnout a song that can energize and affirm is of particular value – Eileen’s catalog includes many....To me this underlines her commitment to giving her audiences something useful they can take with them after the lights come up, something constructive, perhaps even uplifting.”

— Matthew Finch, Music Director KUNM-FM, Albuquerque, NM (February 2017)