Mike has won a 2010 National Heritage Fellowship Award
http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/index.html

From humble beginnings on a small farm in Ballinakill, East Galway, where the family thatched cottage had no electricity, gas, or running water and where cooking was done in heavy pots in an open hearth, Mike Rafferty has now reached the summit of Irish traditional music in the United States: the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship. It is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government on a traditional or folk artist. - Earle Hitchner, Irish Echo