Gerdie Cummane was born on October 6, 1917, in Ballyknock, Kilnamona, Co Clare. He started playing the concertina in 1926, learning by “hit and miss” from his [...]

ALTHOUGH now an iconic figure of Donegal fiddle music, as a musician John Doherty was very much an individualist. But more than any other musician, he did draw attention to that county’s distinctive fiddle style.
The musical lineage of the Doherty and McConnell families goes back many generations of Travellers that alternated between settled and life [...]

Admired by the many people who stopped to listen to him at fairs and sporting events in the 1930s and ’40s, the travelling piper Johnny Doran played an influential role in the revival of the uilleann pipes in Ireland from the 1950s onwards. He played with imagination and flair and his music continues to inspire [...]

An unusually versatile performer, Seamus Egan has won four All Irelands (whistle, flute, mandolin, banjo). Yet despite people’s expectations of flashy performances, he prefers to blend into the overall Solas sound rather than impress with showy solo runs.
Born in 1969 in Hatboro, Philadelphia, of Irish parents, the family returned to Foxford, Co Mayo, when he [...]

Seamus Ennis used to say that it took all of 21 years to become a piper – seven years learning, seven years practising and seven years playing. He may be the exception that proves the rule, because by the age of 21, his playing as evidenced on recordings he made for Radio Eireann in 1940 [...]

HE IS an Irish riddle. Although he has neither recorded an album nor performed a solo concert, Paddy Fahey’s name recurs at sessions, concerts and festivals throughout the world. He is a fiddle player and popular composer, but who can name one tune he has composed?
Like many musicians of his generation, he does not seek [...]

By Pauline Jackson
Lucy Farr, nee Kirwan, was born in Ballinakill near Loughrea, Co. Galway. She was born in 1911, the third oldest of seven children. Her father Martin played the melodeon and flute and her Aunt Margaret played the fiddle.
Lucy’s farmhouse was always full of music, in fact it was the only one in the [...]

Jimmy Faulkner who died on March 4, 2008, was one of the most versatile and respected guitarists in Ireland. He hailed originally from the South Circular Road where he grew up near Dolphins Barn in Dublin.
He became a regular in the sessions in the Meeting Place in Dublin in the 70s. He recorded with Christy Moore, [...]

Frankie Gavin was born in Corrandulla, on the eastern side of Lough Corrib in County Galway, in 1956. There was a lot of music in the family. His father played the fiddle. His mother, Mary Crehan from Ballygar, and her brothers all played music on either fiddle or accordeon. His brother Sean plays the accordion [...]

Hughie Gillespie was born on September 11, 1906, near Ballybofey, Co Donegal. Both his father and uncle were fiddlers, but Hughie regarded his uncle Johnny as the better musician and the one who had most influence on him.
He emigrated to New York in February, 1923, and found work with an electricity company. [...]

Martin Hayes encapsulates that definition of a fiddle – a violin with attitude. He was born at Maghera near Feakle in East Clare in 1962. The area is rich in Irish traditional music, his father PJoe Hayes was a founder member of the famed Tulla Ceili Band and noted Clare fiddler Paddy Canny was an [...]

Michael Gorman was born in County Sligo in 1895. He lived first in Doocastle, and then Achonry. His mother, Anne McGibbon, was a singer from Derry and his father, a small farmer, played the flute and the melodeon. When he was young, he was taken care of by foster parents who sent him for [...]

Paddy Keenan’s father John came from Westmeath, his mother, Mary Bravender, from Co. Cavan. Both Paddy’s father and grandfather were uilleann pipers and his father was a pipe-maker. Paddy’s brother Johnny was a well-known banjo player up to his death in March 2000. In 1955 the family settled in Ballyfermot, Dublin, under a government settlement [...]

Fiddle and concertina player John Kelly was a central figure in Irish traditional music in the middle decades of the past century. Without him we would very probably have had no recording of the piping of Johnny Doran. In fact he is the only musician known to have recorded with Doran.
Born in 1912 in Rehy, [...]

Six currachs line up off Donegal for the start in choppy waters for the Tory Island currach races. “We have been very lucky with this weather,” says the king of Tory, Patsaí Dan Mac Ruaidhrí, from the pier.  The waters are choppy, but the sun has been shining.
This is the second year in a row [...]

Uilleann piper and pipe maker Eugene Lambe was born in Malahide, Co Dublin, on August 8, 1945. His mother Kathleen and uncle John McKeon both played fiddle.
The tin whistle was his first instrument, at ten years of age. Schoolmaster Liam Joyce from Mayo taught him his first tunes.
He has had no formal teaching in music. [...]

By Ronan Nolan
In the 1950s and 1960s, when the music of Coleman and Morrison seemed to a new generation to have been there forever, hearing Sean McGuire playing his fiddle on Radio Eireann had an uplifting effect.
Sean Stephen Maguire (he later changed his name) was born in Belfast on December 26, 1927, into a musical [...]

Denis Murphy was born on November 14, 1910, at Lisheen, Gneeveguilla Co. Kerry. His father Bill had a fife and drum band which performed at local events like Knocknagree races and he played flute, fife and fiddle. Bill married Mary (Mainie) Corbett, herself a fine singer, and they had eight children, of which Denis was [...]

One of the most influential accordion players in Irish traditional music, Paddy O’Brien was born in Newton, about five miles from Nenagh in County Tipperary, on February 10, 1922. His father, the fiddle player and accordionist Dinny O’Brien, led the famous Bridge Ceili Band. The fiddler Sean Ryan was a cousin.
Paddy took up the fiddle [...]

The curious journey, detailed below, of Francis O’Neill from a West Cork farm to occupying the office of Chicago Chief of Police, is in itself the stuff books in the mould of Jack London are made of. But it was the tunes and songs picked up from his parents and visiting musicians at the family [...]