Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

Joanie Madden is one the greatest musicians and personalities in the history of Irish music in America. Born in New York of Irish parents, she is the second oldest of seven children raised in a musical household; her mother Helen comes from Miltown Malbay, County Clare and her father Joe, an All-Ireland Champion on the accordion, comes from Portumna in East Galway. Joanie was exposed to the finest Irish traditional music early in life in the Bronx listening to her father and his friends play music at family gatherings and social events.
She began taking lessons from the legendary East Galway flute player Jack Coen and within a few years she had won both the World Championship on the concert flute and whistle. During that time, Joanie also became the first American to win the Senior All-Ireland Championship on the tin whistle. She has since then gained many other awards including being the youngest member ever inducted into the Irish-American Musicians Hall of Fame and the recipient of the Wild Geese Award, She was also voted one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans in the country by Irish America magazine and Traditional Musician of the Year by the Irish Echo newspaper for her contributions to promoting and presenting Irish culture in America.

She is in constant demand as a studio musician and has performed on over a hundred albums with scores of artists including such luminaries as Pete Seeger and Sinead O'Connor. Joanie has played on three Grammy award-winning albums and her involvement on the Hearts of Space labels’ "Celtic Twilight" CD led to a platinum album with over 1,000,000 sales. She has toured with the Eagles’ Don Henley and was also a featured soloist on the final Lord of the Rings soundtrack. As well as her numerous albums with Cherish the Ladies, she has recorded three highly successful solo albums; "A Whistle on the Wind", "Song of the Irish Whistle" (named the most successful tin whistle album in history selling nearly 300,000 copies) and "Song of the Irish Whistle 2".

Joanie has become one of the most visible Irish musicians in the world over the past two decades touring the globe with Cherish the Ladies, a group she has led since its inception in 1985. Not only is she renowned as a virtuoso tin whistle and flute player but as a highly energetic and invariably hilarious stage performer. Her huge repertoire of music spans a wide range of expression from exuberant dance tunes to slow, stately and evocative pieces. She is a consummate musician and one of the most mercurial and best loved figures in Irish music today.

Mick Moloney

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James Coogan ** @

Honored February 17, 2007

http://www.qmcorp.net/coogan/index.html

Jim Coogan left us in November, 2006 in his 76th year after a prolonged battle with leukemia. The veteran accordion player who also served in the U.S. Navy received a very touching honor as he was laid to rest alongside his County Roscommon bride Cecelia (who predeceased him by two years) with a dual honor guard composing sailors and box players he played with over many years in the Irish music scene. He took great pride in serving both his native country in the Armed Services and that of his wife and grandparents from County Waterford where his devotion to traditional Irish Music for over 50 years made him one of the most respected elder statesmen in recent years.

He was born in Yonkers in 1930 and as a young man he was exposed to the Irish music through the McNulty Family, the Flanagan Brothers and even his contemporary Joe Derrane who as a teenager in the 1940s excelled at the C#/D accordion which Jim would later take up as a young man in the Navy in the 1950s. Later he would join the Irish Traditional Musicians Association in New York which preceded Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in America and the Yonkers Ceili Club. He soaked up detail after detail about the players who kept the music alive in New York, most especially the box players which came in handy in his later years as he became a much valued historian of times gone by thanks to his ready and colorful recall.

His curiosity and expertise about accordions and squeezeboxes increased as he got older and in recent years he put to good use at The Box Office where he sold accordions. As a salesman, he took great delight in “going on the road” with a selection of new accordions relishing the fact that they were in demand again and a critical part of the traditional Irish music scene. Along with the inside-out knowledge of the box, he offered his great wit and wisdom through his story telling so you always got more than you bargained for if you came upon him.

In the past decade he developed a mighty reputation as a welcoming session master for a coterie of musicians who weren’t as steeped in the tradition as he was. He helped introduce and encourage many a younger musician to embrace the music and enjoy the socialization that comes with sharing a tune or a laugh. His sessions at Ireland’s 32 in Suffern may not have lasted long but they touched many musicians who enjoyed his folksy yet steadfast approach to traditional music. Even broader was his reach online in cyberspace where he made many friends also around the world with his mix of nostalgic, historic or critical thoughts.

His legacy of music fell most profoundly on his daughter Mary who was part of that impressive generation of New York women in the 1980s who gave birth to the worldwide touring group Cherish the Ladies, of which she is founding member. He witnessed and participated in many of their stage and recorded triumphs that reached a pinnacle when they were invited to play for President George W. Bush in the White House for St. Patrick’s Day, 2005. He and Mary recorded a CD together Passing Time and he also appears on Mary’s Christmas CD and on Cherish the Ladies’ recordings At Home and The Boys Won’t Leave the Girls Alone.

Paul Keating

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Dermot Grogan ** @

Honored February 17, 2007

Dermot Grogan spent only five years in New York before returning to his native Mayo, where he passed away far too soon at the age of 48 on February 4, 2006. In those few years, however, his talent as a flute player and button accordionist, as well as his marvelous human qualities, made Dermot one of the most respected and best liked Irish traditional musicians in North America.

Dermot was born and raised in the townland of Derrytavrane, Kilkelly. This part of northeast Mayo, like the “Coleman Country” of south Sligo just over the nearby county border, has always been a very musical area. It is also very poor farming country, however, and the main export crop has always been the local youth. So, like many a Mayo lad before him, Dermot took the emigrant boat to Holyhead at a young age. Dermot Grogan at the Blarney Star in 2003 - picture courtesy of Marlow Palleja

He spent long years toiling on building sites in Manchester, Hartlepool and other English cities, finishing up his working career in Britain as one of London’s “tunnel tigers” digging shafts deep beneath the Thames. The tunnel men are renowned for their toughness and hard-drinking ways and Dermot, despite his relatively small stature, could hold his own with any of them. He was anything but a “hard man,” however, and was always ready with a joke and a smile for friend or stranger.

Dermot returned home to Ireland frequently, but it was his music that sustained him throughout his exile years in England. While working in Manchester or London he played with the best local musicians, including fiddlers Brian Rooney and Dezi Donnelly, button accordionist Peter Carberry and banjo/fiddle virtuoso John Carty. Together with fiddle legend Bobby Casey, concertina great Noel Hill, flute player Gregory Daly and button accordionist Jim Philbin, he performed for a wedding scene in the film I Could Read the Sky, an Irish emigrant story released in 1999.

Dermot’s flute playing was extraordinary. Sligo and Chicago flute great Kevin Henry rated him “the best flute player I know” and he was frequently mentioned in the same breath as Seamus Tansey as a master of the highly ornamented north Connacht style. Perhaps no other flute player was as adept as Dermot at transferring awkward fiddle and accordion tunes to his instrument. He was also a superb button accordionist, one who played with understated good taste and was always a perfect partner for an unamplified fiddler.

Unlike some elite musicians, Dermot never turned up his nose at a tune with lesser talents. He never made the full-length solo recording he surely should have. But he did freely share his enormous repertoire with many other musicians, some of whom recorded the various tunes now known to the world only as “Dermot Grogan’s.”

In 1999, Dermot moved with his long-time partner Sheila Waldron to New York, where he soon made a great impression on the local Irish musicians. Older players immediately recognized his musical quality, while younger ones sought him out as a source of new tunes and as a touchstone of true traditional style. While in New York, Dermot led hundreds of pub sessions and performed at concerts and festivals that included an all-star flute concert during New York University’s 2003 “West Along the Road” program and a marvelous duet performance at the Blarney Star that same year with Mayo fiddler/composer Brendan Tonra. Dermot can also be heard with guitarist Dónal Clancy on a beautiful hornpipe selection on the compilation Wooden Flute Obsession, vol. 2.

In the summer of 2004 Dermot began to suffer the symptoms of what turned out to be pancreatic cancer. He bravely underwent surgery and repeated bouts of chemotherapy, which allowed him to return home in 2005 to Mayo, where he continued to live on his own and to play music with friends until just before his untimely death. He was buried in the new cemetery at Urlaur next to his father Darby, after which musicians from far and wide gathered in Charlestown to play music in his memory long into the night. He is survived by Sheila, as well as by his mother Bridget, sister Bridie Finan and brothers Michael and John.

Don Meade

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Frankie O’Neill ** @

Honored February 4, 2006

Francis Joseph "Frankie" O’Neill was born October 18, 1966, in the Bronx to proud parents Frank and Teresa O’Neill. Frank emigrated from Ballina, Co. Mayo, and served as Chairman of the Michael Coleman Branch of Comhaltas during the early 1980's. Teresa (nee McKenna) came from Ballinamuck, Co. Longford.

Influenced by his parents who came from a very musical family, young Frankie started taking lessons on piano accordion at age seven and attended the Irish music school of the late and great Martin Mulvihill. Becoming an accomplished musician at an early age, Frankie won many solo competitions, as well as duet and trio with his brother Keith on fiddle and sister Pauline on flute, both in New York and in Ireland. Frankie was greatly influenced by Jim Mahon and loved to listen to the music of Joe Burke, John Whelan and Sharon Shannon.

Martin Mulvihill formed the Garrai Eoin II Ceile Band in 1976. In 1977 the band won First Place Under 11 in the NY Fleadh at Manhattan College. They travelled to Ireland that August and competed in Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann at Innis, Co. Clare. In 1977 the band won the All-Ireland Under 11 Championship. Wth the Tara Ceile Band the Garryowen released a record on the Green Linnet Record Label. Their success continued with All-Ireland Championships at Listowel 1978 and Buncrana in 1979 and 1980. At the Buncrana Fleadh Frankie was the drummer for the band.

In 1980 the Garryowen II Ceile Band, including Frankie, took part in a video recorded in the late Martin Mulvihill's home. "Did your Mother come from Ireland?" was a documentary written and presented by Conrad Fischer and Mick Moloney for RTE, the Irish national tv broadcasting service, documents the "renaissance of Irish traditional music in NYC during the 1970's and documents the renewed vitality and growth of this music, after years of dormancy, revealed through performances by second and third generation children of Irish immigrants."

Frankie graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1984 and became a Plumber with Local #2. After a few years in the union he decided that he would try to become a NYC Plumber. He sat for the test, received one of the highest scores, and was immediately hired. In 1993, Frankie married the love of his life, Anna Marie Dineen and they settled in their home in Hawthorne NY. After many years of being an exceptional craftsman Frankie expressed a desire to become one of "New York's Bravest" and in 1995, with great pride he joined the New York City Fire Department. He had finally found his calling and he absolutely loved being a Firefighter.

On September 18, 1999, Frankie and Anna became the proud parents of a beautiful boy named Kieran. Frankie had always loved children and finally had one of his own. Sadly, he only got to enjoy being a Dad for a mere 10 months. Frankie O'Neill died unexpectedly at age 33 of a heart ailment. His death was devastating to his family and friends. He will always be remembered for his smile, hearty laugh and big heart as well as for his brilliance as a musician. Ar Deis De Go Raibh A Anam.

Ira Goldman

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Brian Conway

Honored February 4, 2006

www.brianconway.com

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Tonight Brian Conway has proved philosopher George Santayana wrong. By remembering and cherishing the past, Brian has learned to repeat it. Such fiddling friends and mentors as Andy McGann (1928-2004) and Martin Wynne (1913-1998) preceded him into Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann’s Mid-Atlantic Region Hall of Fame. It is now fitting that Brian, who has always revered and championed these past masters, joins them as a musician, teacher, and tradition preserver equally deserving of this singular honor.

The New York style of Sligo fiddling draws inspiration and sustenance from the legacy of Michael Coleman, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, Paddy Sweeney, Andy McGann, Martin Wynne, and James “Lad” O’Beirne, to name but seven. Brian has not only added his own distinctive imprint to that tradition but passed it on to such talented pupils as Maeve Flanagan, his sister Rose’s daughter, and Patrick Mangan. Long before the phrase “roots music” was hollowed out by overuse, Brian Conway embodied the true spirit of the phrase in his fiddling. It summons the past without slavishly imitating it. It is rigorous in its discipline but not rigid in its application. It integrates invention and instinct but never to the point where melody becomes an excuse for a wild flight of ego. Technique serves the tune, not the other way around.

The Bronx home of County Tyrone immigrants Jim and Rose Conway, both of whom played the violin, was an ideal environment in which their five children—Seán, Brian, Rose, Paul, and James—were exposed to Irish traditional music. Fiddlers Andy McGann, Martin Wynne, Paddy Reynolds, Louis Quinn, Tom Connolly, and Vincent Harrison, button accordionist Dave Collins, and flutist Gus Collins were some of the instrumentalists who would drop by the Conway home to play informally on Friday nights, and Brian was there to soak it all up. These musicians’ stories and anecdotes deepened his understanding of the continuity of community that is the lifeblood of this music, and Brian’s own immersion quickly garnered attention.

In 1973, a year and a half after he took up the fiddle, 12-year-old Brian Conway won his first All-Ireland championship, and he returned to Ireland the next year to win his second junior title. Twelve years later, he won the coveted All-Ireland senior fiddle championship, becoming the fourth and last American to do so.

Appearing on the Garryowen Céilí Band’s “From the Shores of America” in 1976 and “Irish Traditional Instrumental Music From the East Coast of America, Vol. I” in 1977 paved the way for “The Apple in Winter” in 1981, an album Brian made with fellow fiddler Tony DeMarco and guitarist and bones player Caesar Pacifici. Its CD reissue in 2000 was a refreshing reminder of Brian’s vital, ongoing contribution to “Irish Music in New York,” the recording’s apt subtitle.

Other albums featuring Brian’s fiddling include Joe Burke’s “The Tailor’s Choice” in 1983 and “The Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival: My Love Is in America” in 1991. But it is in his solo recording from 2002, “First Through the Gate,” where Brian’s prowess as a player reaches its studio apogee. I picked it as the top Irish traditional album of that year in the Irish Echo, and, with the 20-20 vision of historical hindsight, I am even more impressed by it now.

Brian Conway keeps the traditional fire well-stoked in the session he leads Wednesday nights at Dunne’s Pub, White Plains, N.Y., in the students he instructs, and in the joy he derives and gives every time he puts bow to strings. His hall of fame induction tonight testifies both to a life enriched by Irish traditional music and to Irish traditional music enriched by his life. He has made, and continues to make, an indelible difference in the culture we all love.

Earle Hitchner, Irish Echo, The Wall Street Journal

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JOE “BANJO” BURKE ** @

Honored February 5, 2005

joebanjoburke.org/index.html

Joe grew up in Johnstown, County Kilkenny, the youngest of sixteen. His father was a classical flautist and singer. John McCormack's recordings were always playing, so you could say Joe learned to sing from him. But the King family and other traditional players from Galmae would often stop in at the Burke's for an evening's music and Joe was drawn to the traditional and folk music.

photo from the CD "30 Years of Joe Banjo Burke LIVE Volume 1" He started out with the accordion, but soon got a mandolin from Frankie Boland. It wasn't until he was fourteen he came across his first banjo, and settled on that as his instrument of choice. He was strongly influenced by the Dubliners, and the Clancy Brothers, but always had the softest place in his heart for the old traditional songs and the sentimental songs of John McCormack.

He was delighted when Paddy Reilly hit the top of the charts because they liked the same songs. I remember one night at the Gloc Joe sang a song for me and said "Now this is a great song and nobody's recording it." On Paddy's next album there it was - ”The Rose of Allendale.”

But Joe wasn't just a musician. He went to work early in life as a farm laborer. He and his cousin were well known among the local farmers as the best turnip pullers in the vicinity. He hurled with the Fenians, Johnstown's hurling club, and developed an uncanny skill at the game. He sang songs of hard men who did hard work, and he was one of them. Those same hands that flew over the banjo in New York also dug ditches in Birmingham, lugged dynamite for the pipeline through Thompson Pass, built airbases, removed asbestos, and cleaned up oil spills in Alaska, and poured concrete in Chicago. Joe sang a lot of rebel songs and he sang them from the heart. They were songs that honored brave men that fought against soldiers. His high regard and support did not include those who disgraced the Provos by targeting innocent civilians. Joe was well known as a musician and character in the bars in New York and the Catskills, but he was also a devoted father who often passed up gigs to be home with the kids if I had to work.

Bridget Burke, 2004

No one who ever heard Joe “Banjo” Burke will ever forget his powerful singing or nimble-fingered tenor banjo playing. His voice, his instrumental prowess and his sheer physical presence commanded respect, and many a noisy bar fell silent the moment Joe began to sing. Joe played at many concerts and festivals, but he was at his best for a late-night audience in a congenial musical pub like the famous Bunratty Bar in the Bronx, the Glocca Morra on Manhattan’s east side or Puzzles Pub in the Catskills. Bridget, Joe, Sean McGlynn and Andy McGann at Noel Higgins' wedding - from the CD "30 Years of Joe Banjo Burke LIVE Volume 1"

His celebrated musical partnership with Kerry fiddler Johnny Cronin resulted in a 1977 duet LP with pianist Gerry Wallace that remains a much-sought-after collectors item. Joe’s other frequent musical collaborators during his three decades in New York included his singing wife Bridget, balladeers Jerry Meegan and Donie Carroll, button accordion greats Joe “Accordion” Burke and Johnny “Accordion” Cronin, fiddle virtuoso Andy McGann and Wexford-born button accordionist/fiddler Tom Dunne.

Joe succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease in December 2003 at the age of 57, survived by Bridget and their children Siobhan, Rory and Finbarr. The following June, thousands turned out on McLean Avenue in Yonkers for a great day and night of music devoted to his memory. Joe’s musical legacy is being preserved on a series of posthumously issued recordings that includes a reissue of his Hours of Glory album of rebel and GAA songs as well as live recordings from the Glocca Morra and Eagle Tavern.

Don Meade

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BILLY McCOMISKEY

Honored February 5, 2005

Billy McComiskey, a highly regarded player/composer of Irish traditional music, was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1951. He picked up the button accordion at age six, inspired by his uncles’ playing and his mother’s love of the music. At age 15, Billy met his mentor, Sean McGlynn, a master and proponent of the East Galway style that now characterizes the playing of many of New York's finest Irish accordion players. Billy McComiskey - photo courtesy of Joanie Madden

After moving to Maryland, Billy played with two legendary trios: Washington DC’s renowned Irish Tradition and the internationally acclaimed Trian. He has continued playing over the years with many of New York's finest Irish musicians, including, Peter McKiernan, Pat Keogh, Brian Conway, Jack and Fr. Charlie Coen, Patty Furlong, Mick Moloney, Felix and Brendan Dolan, Mike and Mary Rafferty, Joe and Joanie Madden, Mike Flynn, Mike McHale, Michael and Bernadette Fee, Johnny Leonard, John Nolan, Willie Kelly, Jimmy Kelly, Jerry O'Sullivan, John Fitzpatrick, Martin Mulhaire, Pat Murray, Noel Higgins, Mary Coogan, Dennis Galvin, Don Meade, Tony DeMarco, Linda Hickman, and many others.

Billy's 1986 All-Ireland championship title attests to his mastery of the button accordion. His tunes are becoming a part of the traditional repertoire wherever Irish music is played. Several of his compositions have been recently published in Josephine Keegan’s new collection of Irish Traditional Tunes, “A Drop in the Ocean.” He is known on both sides of the Atlantic as an indefatigable session player, teacher and promulgator of The Music.

But Billy takes most pride in the development of the Irish traditional music community in the Baltimore-Washington area. He formed the Baltimore Ceili Band twenty years ago and performed with them at the 2004 Catskill Mountains Irish Arts Week in the legendary Shamrock House of East Durham, NY to a packed hall of enthusiastic dancers and music lovers, many of whom traveled from Baltimore to support them. Billy lives in Parkville, a suburb of Baltimore, with his wife Annie, their three sons, Patrick, Sean and Michael and their dog, Sally.

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JOHN VESEY ** @

Honored February 21, 2004

www.sligofiddler.com

Once again we turn to that musical county of Sligo to honor another extraordinary musician who left its shores to make his presence felt in North America. Eighty years ago, John Francis Vesey was born in Ballincurry near Tubbercurry into a household where music was revered with his father John offering him his first fiddle lesson and his mother Anna, a lilter, sharing many tunes with their son. His musical education was furthered by the tutelage of the Michael Gorman, one of Sligo’s great fiddlers and a friend of his father’s who offered to take him on at a fair in Charlestown. Gorman taught by traveling from house to house around the townlands in South Sligo. Gorman is crediting with giving him a firm foundation in fiddle bowing and fingering technique which characterized his playing the rest of his life as well as his own teaching style later on in Philadelphia. One of his schoolmates was Mike Flynn (Hall of Fame 2003) just last year and like Flynn and Gorman, Vesey made his way to England immersing himself in its lively Irish music scene. In 1949 he emigrated to Philadelphia where he had relatives and quickly became part of the vibrant American scene where he was welcome from Boston to Chicago to New York where he often shared tunes with another great Sligo fiddler Paddy Killoran a link back to the great Michael Coleman. In Philadelphia, he was very active in Irish concerts, dances and he led at least two Ceilidhe Bands over here. Vesey was a frequent guest on Irish radio programs most notably those on WTEL where he played with Austin Kelly, leader of the All-Ireland Irish Orchestra. In 1977 he released an album with Paul Brady on the Shanachie label. In 1998, a retrospective double CD was produced by his former student and fellow musician, the late Thomas Standeven Jr. called John Vesey: Sligo Fiddler with 43 tracks cobbled together from tape recordings beginning in 1954 and later decades before he passed away in Feb of 1995. The selections reveal a master of the Irish violin as captured on home recordings or live radio spots that while unvarnished by the studio allow more people to hear his music. John Vesey was married to Rose Marie who is also deceased and they had seven children who gave their blessing to this posthumous recording project by Standeven. That double CD is available at www.sligofiddler.com or through Joe Vesey (484)-494-8386.

Notes from the late Thomas Standeven, Jr. edited by Paul Keating

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JAMES KEANE

Honored February 21, 2004

www.jameskeane.com

Born in Drimnagh, Dublin 1948 to fiddle playing parents Patrick and Molly, the stars were aligned to place the young James Keane on a musical journey with all the giants who have populated the world of Irish music in the past half-century. Since taking up the accordion at age six along with his older brother Sean who plays fiddle with the Chieftains he has been exposed not only to very talented musicians but fiercely committed ones who can take credit for saving traditional Irish music in the last century. Comhaltas and James were young in the 1950s but the influence of people like Seamus Ennis, Leo Rowesome and Sonny Brogan made a big impression. As a teenager he was part of the glorious multi-generational Castle Ceili Band who garnered an All-Ireland championship in 1965 with players like the Keanes, Joe Ryan, Mick O’Connor, Michael Tubridy, Bridie Laverty and John Kelly played dance music so lively it couldn’t be contained in Dublin music clubhouses. In the 1970s James was the dynamic box player who could sit alongside the Folk music stars who were then making a name for themselves in Dublin like Mick Moloney, Paul Brady, Christy Moore and Donal Lunney or later with Ryan’s Fancy in Canada and make everyone sit and take notice that traditional music was not meek nor mild nor content to die like the ashes in the fireside from which the music sprung. James Keane immigrated to New York in 1968 establishing a residency at the John Barleycorn Pub in Manhattan. In 1980 he began a sojourn in Canada with the ballad group Ryan’s Fancy producing three albums and a television series before James settled back permanently in New York. Harkening back to his Dublin youth when the set dancing and music was legendary in clubs like Mrs. Crotty’s and the Church Street Club, James was a spark in NY set dancing revival in the late 1980s into 1990s with stints at McGovern’s in Sunnyside and the Cork Lounge. His tunes, lift and drive continue the tradition since he joined the New York ceili bank Ceol na gCroi recently. Keane has been prolific on the recording front having released six solo albums culminating with a triumphant return to his native Dublin result in James Keane and Friends: Live in Dublin released on Lavalla Records in 2002. James and his wife Therese reside in Bellerose with their two sons Seamus and Brendan. He also has his own website at www.jameskeane.com.

Paul Keating

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MICK MOLONEY

Honored February 15, 2003

www.mickmoloney.com

The 58 year-old Limerick native came to the U.S. and Philadelphia, in particular, in 1973 and the Irish music scene has not been the same since. In those thirty years he has distinguished himself as an academic folklorist achieving a Doctorate for his Ph.D. Dissertation: ‘Irish Music in America: Continuity and Change’ while weaving a very important role as record producer, festival and summer school organizer, and accomplished performer in his own right. Taking full advantage of the improving technology in the 1970s and a heightened awareness and interest in Irish culture, Mick was a trailblazer in recognizing the richness of Irish traditional music in America and the people who played it and he documented it in every medium he could find. He took it from a private artistic expression to a very public one, often exposing it on the very finest stages in the country elevating the music and garnering the overdue recognition it deserved. In 1976, he organized 26 musicians and dancers to represent Irish America during the Bicentennial for a one-week celebration on the Mall in D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institute’s Festival of American Folk Life. Following that his seminal Green Fields of America touring group brought traditional Irish music and step dancing all over America for more than two decades and laid the groundwork for performance shows like Riverdance to succeed. His inspired vision allowed audiences everywhere to see the oral tradition of Irish music, dance, song and storytelling taking place right before their very eyes as he blended well-seasoned musicians with the most talented youngsters who shared Mick’s respect for their older masters. His critical role in placing the spotlight on the older musicians like Jack and Charlie Coen, Ed Reavy Sr., Mike Rafferty, Mike Flynn along with many others and his mentoring encouragement of Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Jerry O’Sullivan and one of his most enduring legacies Cherish the Ladies under the direction of star pupil Joanie Madden are well recognized elsewhere. Moloney has already been acclaimed A National Heritage Fellow at the White House in 1999 and the Pew Fellow in the Arts in 2000 for his comprehensive work in the Irish American community. With his induction into the CCE Mid-Atlantic Hall of Fame we echo those achievements and add our respect to a most deserving trustee of our Irish musical heritage, Mick Moloney.

Paul Keating

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MIKE FLYNN **

Honored February 15, 2003

The great Sligo influence on traditional Irish music, which continues to resonate in the New York area to this very day, touched the young Tubbercurry native at the age of five. Mike who was born in 1926 was a natural on the flute and received no formal training but he learned by listening to the older men in town. Before long, Mike could be found playing at dances, weddings, and many a feis throughout Ireland.

Mike made his way to England in 1947, playing both the flute and fiddle at many dances and sessions. It was his unique style on the flute that landed him in the Royal Albert Hall in London. This led to BBC sessions and various records, accompanying the great Paddy Killoran and Mike Gorman, among others. Despite his success in England, Mike made his way to New York in 1955. Soon after arriving, he joined a group of about 50 other traditional musicians to form the Paddy Killoran Club in Manhattan.

Mike became a mainstay in the New York traditional Irish music circles, making several more records with Paddy Killoran. He made annual appearances in the Knights of Shamrocks extravaganza, the Ted Mack Show, the Arthur Godfrey Show and Harry McGurk Show through the early 60’s. He could also be found marching and playing with the County Down Fife & Drum Band in St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York. The 1976 Bicentennial celebration in Washington, DC, was one of Mike’s last formal appearances where he appeared along with 51 other musicians and dancers from Ireland and America. The greatest times were had playing for the dancers at all of those great New York area feis events with the likes of Mike Preston, Mick Moloney, Paddy Reynolds, Sean McGlynn, Andy McGann, Joe Burke, Louie Quinn, Martin Wynn, Felix Dolan, Fr. Charlie & Jack Coen, and Mike Rafferty. If the feis represents Irish music and dance at its best, then surely it played a role in Mike’s greatest creation. Along with his lovely wife Liz, a fine Clare woman, they raised one daughter, Dympna, whose five American Stepdancing Championships and exquisite performances on tin whistle evoke fond memories for all who know this great Irish American family. Mike and Liz, married nearly 44 years, reside in Elmhurst, Queens. Mike is also the proud “pop” to grandchildren Ryan, Liam, and Roisin.

Roger DeBonis

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PADDY REYNOLDS **

Honored February 16, 2002

www.paddyreynolds.com

When great fiddlers’ names are bandied about, you can always count on Paddy Reynolds to be included. His talent as a legendary player has been recognized in the U.S. since his emigration in 1949. Paddy was the seventh of eight children born to James and Mary Ann Reynolds on Dec. 17, 1920 in Dromard, S. Mary’s, Co. Longford. His mother, a violinist, taught him his first twelve tunes starting at age six. He first came to Staten Island in March of 1949 and lived in Brooklyn before moving to the Bronx in 1951 when he and his wife Elizabeth got married. In the South Bronx area in the 1950’s were many outstanding musicians like Lad O’Beirne, Andy McGann, Tim Harte, Paddy Killoran and others. These musicians had memorable times sharing their heart-felt music from their homeland in neighborhood music clubs, cabarets and, of course, the house sessions in the South Bronx tenements. The times and the music were great even if the money wasn’t. Also in the 1950’s and 60’s the Gaelic League featured all the best traditional musicians available in New York and Paddy was a stellar member of that corp. His wonderful sweet music kept the dancers happy and graceful out on the floor. Paddy was a familiar figure at area feisianna where timing and tempo were important for stepdancers and also a frequent star at the Snug Harbor Irish Festivals out in Staten Island. His music will endure on several recordings he made with Eugene O’Donnell, Jerry Wallace, Andy McGann and Paul Brady and his image was captured quite prominently for all to see in the movie “The Devil’s Own” playing away on his fiddle. A sure Hall of Famer!

Paul Keating

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TOMMY MOFFIT

Honored February 16, 2002

Tommy Moffit was born to Catherine McDonough and Michael Moffit on December 11, 1930 in Errisaune, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. The youngest of four children, Tommy had two sisters and one brother. Tommy immigrated to the U.S.A. at the age of 16 with his sister Kathleen after the passing of their parents who died within three months of one another. They came, initially, to Atlantic City to an Uncle Tom McDonough who was a very good accordian player sparking Tommy’s interest and he soon taught himself the instrument. By 18, Tommy was out playing on his own. Upon moving to Philadelphia, he played at all the basement and kitchen sessions around in the hallowed company of Ed Reavy Sr., Joe Vesey and Tomas Standeven who, sadly, just passed away recently.

Tom met his wife, the late Peggy (Harrington) Moffit at a ceili and they had three children. For 15 years, Tommy was a fixture on Sunday nights at the Irish Center’s Fireside Room in Philadelphia. Tommy has played locally at every group’s ceilithe, every Irish pub and every Irish festival and benefit. He has been the emcee for the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual Traditional Music Festival for years and he has been an active and vocal supporter of CCE-Delaware Valley since its inception over three years ago. Folks in the Delaware Valley have enjoyed his weekly radio program aired on WTMR 800 AM every Sunday from noon to 1 PM and now you can hear it worldwide over the internet at www.irishradio.com. Tommy is truly “Mr. Irish Music Man” of Philadelphia and a very worthy addition to the Hall of Fame in the Mid-Atlantic Region of CCE.

Marianne MacDonald

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ANDY McGANN **

Honored February 16, 2001

Andy McGann (left) and Paddy Reynolds (photo courtesy of Brian Conway) The Sligo influence on traditional music in the New York area has been a vibrant one dating back to the days of the fiddling great Michael Coleman. And in Andy McGann whose parents came from County Sligo we have an unbroken link to the great Coleman with whom Andy studied as a youngster in New York City where he was born. Andy has added to the rich legacy of Irish music in New York over six decades by playing with many of the best musicians to come out of Ireland and here in America by becoming a seminal influence in his own right among musicians who take up the fiddle and the bow. His impeccable timing and tone have delighted musicians and dancers alike no matter what the venue and they have been varied over the years in every borough of the city. Irish traditional music wasn’t always as fashionable as it is today but Andy McGann was always steadfast in his serious approach to the music gaining respect wherever he played.

Andy’s musical partners over the years ranged from great fiddlers in the Sligo tradition like Lad O’Beirne, Paddy Killoran, Martin Wynne, Paddy Reynolds to younger men of today like Brian Conway, Tony DeMarco and teenager Patrick Mangan who garner similar respect among their musical peers and fans. And in the sixties Andy was linked to the legendary box player Joe Burke who along with Felix Dolan recorded the classic TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL COLEMAN in 1965 and re-released on CD in 1994 by Green Linnet. They recorded a second album as a trio in 1979 following a solo album by Andy in 1977 and he was captured in time on two fine tracks from the prestigious 1990 Irish Fiddle Festival at Boston College live recording. Andy McGann’s music has been revered at Gaelic League ceilithe, Festivals from the Catskills to Washington D.C. and even at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann where he was the Honorary President when it was held in Sligo town over a decade ago. Andy had four sons with his late wife Marie and he now resides in Manhattan with his wife Pat and daughter Meghan who plays the flute and also step dances like her father who was also a champion dancer in his youth.

Paul Keating

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KEVIN McGILLIAN

Honored February 16, 2001

Kevin McGillian, a soft spoken, modest man was born in Legfordrum in Tyrone, one of 14 children and moved to Philadelphia at the age of 26. Kevin relates fondly the story of how his mother sent to England for an accordion for him and paid the sum of 7 shillings and it was money well spent given his long musical career.
Kevin has been a mainstay of Irish Traditional Music in the Delaware Valley area playing at every Irish Society monthly ceili and hoolie from Trenton to Bucks Co. to South Jersey to Wilmington, and he pays particular tribute to his partner of 22 years, Pancho. In 1955 (and continuing for 11years) Kevin started playing frequently at the Emerald Bar in Philadelphia every weekend, where he also established a following.

       Kevin used to sit in on sessions with “Old Man Reavy” (Ed Reavy Sr.), John Vesey, John Kelly, Tommy Caulfield and Pete Ward – all legendary giants in traditional Irish Music in Philadelphia for many years.
      Kevin married Mary Boyce in 1959 and together they raised 6 children. His love of music has been passed on to his children all of whom play Irish music on a variety of instruments. In 1997 at the main stage of the Philadelphia Ceili Group Traditional Festival where Kevin has played for over 20 years, the audience rose to their feet to acclaim the entire McGillian family playing together. It was a fitting tribute to Kevin and Mary and their talented family of musicians.
      While shy and soft-spoken Kevin, obviously lets his accordion express the love of native land, his heritage and Irish music playing with great ease and respect.

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BILL McEVOY

Honored February 6, 1998

Born into a musical family on 13th January 1923 in Co. Laois, Bill is the son of musicians. His father played both fiddle, which became Bill's instrument, and melodeon as well as being a renowned Sean Nos singer, and his mother played concertina. Bill's entire life has centered on music and Ireland's Gaelic games – he attended his first All-Ireland hurling final at age 10. His early days were spent in Dublin, where he spent much of his free time at the Stonybatter home of Jim Seery, later among the founders of Comhaltas. Bill also linked up with the late Leo Rowsome and joined the Piper's Club at 14 Thomas Street, serving as its Runai in 1947-48. During this time Bill fell in love with the lovely Lily Kelliher from Lixnaw. Co. Kerry, and they were married on 21st February 1950.

After living in Kerry for four years, they followed in the steps of so many Irish before them and in July 1954, set sail for America, arriving on 10th July. Bill and Lily are parents of five daughters and four sons and now are proud grandparents of 24 children. Bill heard about the Michael Coleman Irish Music Club, which met in the Bronx. He joined both the Coleman Club and the Paddy Killoran Club (which met at the old Irish Institute on Manhattan's 48th Street). In March 1972, a letter to Bill from Ireland told him Comhaltas was anxious to expand into the US and led to meetings with then CCE President Labhras 0 Murchu. The late Diarmuid O Cathain was sent from Lixnaw to New York to aid in starting a Comhaltas branch and a concert tour. On his arrival Bill took him to meet Tom Connolly, president of the Irish American Center in Mineola and they appeared on Tom’s radio show and Harry McGurk’s show from Rockaway. Bill then helped organize the first Comhaltas concert tour of North America and, in April 1973, chaired the Comhaltas organizing meeting, at the Tower View in Woodside.

In 1975, with Labhras O Murchu, Bill organized the first New York Fleadh Cheoil, in Mineola, and the next day the first Midwest Fleadh. That year five charter flights carried Americans to Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann. Bill’s Efforts lair the foundations for Comhaltas in North America, and for the next quarter century he presided over its growth to a membership of more than 2,500. Bill’s 25 years of dedication have culminated in the establishment of North America as a full Province of Comhaltas with more than three dozen branches, in five regions, covering the US and Canada from coast to coast, and Bill as its first Cathaoirleach.

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LOUIS QUINN Snr ** @

Honored February 6, 1998

Louis Eamon Quinn was born in 1904 in Newtownhamilton, Co., Armagh. He had a few lessons with a local fiddler, Henry Savage, before emigrating to Canada in 1928. Finding his way to New York in 1933, he quickly became acclimated to the Irish music scene. He became friendly with many of the top musicians of the time, including the legendary fiddlers Michael Coleman, James Morrison, and James “Lad” O’Beirne, with whom he maintained a lifetime association, the two of them forming one of the most accomplished fiddle duos ever.

During the 1930’s, Louis hosted a weekly Irish radio program. With few organized music clubs in existence at the time, the traditional music scene revolved around impromptu sessions and Louis Quinn was a regular participant in most of them in New York. In the 1950’s, with the late Ed Reavy of Philadelphia and the late Frank Thornton of Chicago, both also among the most respected traditional musicians, Louis helped establish the first national organization for Irish music in America, the “Irish Musicians Association,” becoming its first President and National Chairman. This united organization provided a network of clubs that fostered the Irish traditional music so enjoyed by the Irish community and the I.M.A. grew rapidly, with many branches forming in New York, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Long Island. Among them was the Louis E. Quinn Branch, founded in 1959 in Mineola. With Louis instrumental in incorporating the I.M.A.’s branches into Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in the early 1970’s, that club, still centered in Mineola, became the Mulligan-Quinn Branch of Comhaltas.

Throughout his life, Louis Quinn was a dedicated and able ambassador for Irish music and culture on both sides of the Atlantic. He was singularly responsible for promoting and popularizing the music of his friend Ed Reavy both in America and Ireland, including recording two of Reavy’s reels on a Rounder records tribute album issued in 1979. Countless musicians, both Irish and American born, have been greatly helped in their careers by the tireless efforts of Louis Quinn to keep the spirit and traditions of the Irish alive and well. Louis Quinn died in March 1991, just shy of his 87^th birthday.

Louis and Mary Quinn’s five sons, Sean, Brian, Kevin, Louis Jnr, and Pat, and two daughters, Mary Lou and Kathleen, have added to his musical legacy by their own successes playing Irish traditional music and performing and teaching step-dancing.

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FELIX DOLAN

Honored February 14, 1997

To musicians and dancers alike, Felix Dolan is the “Piano Man” of Irish traditional music in the New York region, perhaps the entire nation. Held by many as the best ceili band keyboard player ever, Felix is widely respected as much for his personal qualities as for his music.

Born of a button-box playing Mayo mother and a Leitrim father, Felix first played with th Felix Dolan and John Sindt e Bronx AOH Division 9 All-Accordian Band, but soon converted to piano with the encouragement of Jimmy Garrety and Pete McAleer.

The legend of Felix Dolan really began at the first “Night of Shamrocks,” in 1957, when Paddy O’Brien brought the 20-year-old on stage to play with himself and Paddy Killoran. From then, the performers Felix has accompanied form a litany of the greatest Irish traditional musicians in the US: Paddy Sweeney, Mike Flynn, Andy McGann, Larry Redican, Jack Coen, Paddy Reynolds, Billy McComiskey, Brian Conway, John Nolan, Joanie Madden, Joe Madden – a list too long to print!

In 1958, Felix was a founding member of the New York Ceili Bank, one of the finest ever to play on either side of the water. Playing for Gaelic League ceilis in the late ‘50’s and the McNiff Dancers practices in Manhattan also led to Felix meeting and marrying Joan, still a leading ceili and set dancer.

There are some musicians, and people, whose lives just cannot be easily summarized. That Felix Dolan is easily the best ceili band keyboard player we’ve ever had the delight to enjoy, and that he well deserves a place in the Comhaltas Hall of Fame is, we’re sure, beyond argument.

For all you’ve given, in your music and as the man you are, Felix, go raibh mile maith agat, agus comhghairdeas!

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JOHNNY CRONIN ** @

Honored February 14, 1997

Johnny Cronin was born in Gneeveguilla, in the Kingdom of Kerry. His heritage was the music of “Sliabh Luachra,” the east Kerry-northwest Cork region, home of some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, Johnny among them. He died in 1991, at age 57.

Although largely self-taught, Johnny was for a time a pupil of Sliabh Luachra’s legendary fiddler, Padraig O’Keefe.

Emigration broke up the famous Cronin Brothers when Paddy left for Boston. Seven years later Johnny came to New York, and his own legend began.

Living on Bainbridge Avenue, Johnny Cronin’s fiddle, and the hearty, scraping sound that was his trademark, soon sounded his love for traditional music in almost every pub and hall in New York. Comhaltas Hall of Fame flutist Mike Rafferty is but one of the greats who regularly shared the stage with Johnny. All-Ireland button-box champ Billy McComskey credits Johnny with some of his first pub gigs, forming a duo with Johnny that often shared a stage – and the quality of playing – with Andy McGann and Joe Burke. Playing with Johnny soon was a pleasure for many other younger musicians, Brian Conway and James Keane among others.

For years he regularly played with Joe “Banjo” burke; theirs is the only album starring Johnny. In 1990 he reunited with bother Paddy for the Boston College fiddle festival/album.

Johnny never stopped playing, and his later years led to new musical heights performing with his wife, Maureen Glynn.

Johnny Cronin’s influence as a fiddler and a man who loved life and his heritage, makes his place in the Comhaltas Hall of Fame justly deserved. Ar Dheis De go Raibh A Anam.

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JOHN MULLIGAN **

Honored February 23, 1996

Much of the credit for the growth and strength of Comhaltas in North America must go to John Mulligan.

John was born in Currycromp, Dromod, Co. Letirim, and grew up in a musical family. His grandfather, father, mother, aunts, and brothers and sisters, all played. In the 20’s and 30’s, the Mulligan house hosted regular sessions. At age nine, John made his first fiddle, from a tea chest! Taught by his father, John played fiddle into his twenties.

Finishing school and army service, in 1945 John married Bridget Clarke, of Dublin, where they lived until March 1959, when, with daughter Ann, they emigrated to Westbury, Long Island.

At an AOH picnic that summer, John met fiddler-accordionist Ed Chisholm and piper-fiddler Frank Clarke. Deciding to form a music club, they brought along Jack Reynolds, Patricia Davis, and Martin Nesbitt, and the Irish Musicians Association was born. Meeting first in Westbury’s Italian Hall, six years later they moved to the Irish American Centre in Mineola and John became President in 1961.

In 1972, the IMA joined Comhaltas, as the Louis E Quinn Branch, and John served as Cathaoirleach until 1984. During those years he also served as Regional Coordinator and, with his friend Bill McEvoy, the North American Coordinator, traveled throughout the eastern US, Canada, and into the Midwest organizing Comhaltas branches.

Beyond his fiddle playing talent, John has a flair for making and repairing them. His hospitality knew no bounds for young musicians seeking a new fiddle or repair of one.

In 1984, John, Bridget, and Ann retired back to Dublin and the Comhaltas Branch he founded was renamed the Mulligan-Quinn Branch in his honor. Bridget died in 1987 and Ann three years later.

John still lives in Dublin, continuing to support Comhaltas and Irish traditional music. Few have given more to Comhaltas and more deserve election to its Hall of Fame. Liathrom Abu.

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JIM CONWAY ** @

Honored February 23, 1996

Perhaps more than most, the late Jim Conway represented the heart of Irish music’s living tradition. For the famous Friday nights at the Conway home in the truest sense kept the wonderful Irish house music tradition alive.

Though a better fiddler than his reticence and modesty acknowledged, Jim’s greatest legacy is easily found in the his friends and the young people, his own children and others, to whom he was the spark igniting the love of Ireland’s musical heritage.

Jim Conway was born in Plumbridge, Tyrone, a country long renowned for the quality of its traditional music. Jim and his wife Rose, from nearby Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone, emigrated to New York, and their Bronx home was for years renowned for Friday night sessions that attracted the best of New York’s traditional musicians and produced many of today’s best new players. Among them was the great Sligo fiddler Martin Wynne. Jim’s son Brian became a student of Martin, himself taught by Michael Coleman’s brother Jim and Lad O’Beirne’s father Philip. Brian went on to capture two All-Ireland fiddle crowns, including the 1986 senior title. Jim’s daughter Rose played with the original Cherish the Ladies group and now teaches fiddle. Sons Paul, Sean and James have also kept alive their parents’ love for the music. Jim and Rose were among the founders of the Michael Coleman Branch and Rose still serves as Runnai. Brian kept that tradition, too, serving as Cathaopirleach and now as Leas Cathaoirleach.

With Jim Conway’s 1992 death, Comhaltas and Irish traditional music lost one of their truest and most passionate friends. Few are more worthy of election to the Comhaltas Hall of Fame.

Ar Deis Do Go Raibh A Anam.

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MARTIN MULHAIRE

Honored February 3, 1995

Martin Mulhaire was born in Eyrecourt County Galway, into a family steeped in traditional music. His father Tommy played accordian, fiddle, flute, whistle and piano accordian. Eyrecourt, in East Galway is a great stronghold of traditional music. Martin started playing the accordian at the age of twelve and won the All-Ireland at age seventeen. At about this time, he started composing tunes, many of which are standard tunes today. The Golden Keyboard and Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire’s, to name a few, have shown up on many records and tapes over the years.

Martin became known as an accordian player by his early records made for Gael-Linn (now out of print) and broadcast over Radio Eireann. Martin also played with the Aughrim Slopes and Killimor Ceili bands. In 1957 he was asked by Paddy Canney and P.J. Hayes to join the famous Tulla Ceili Band for a tour of England. Later that year, they won the All Ireland Ceili Band Competition in Dungarven, Co Waterford. The next stop for Martin and the Tulla Ceili Bank was New York City for St Patrick’s Day 1958. They performed a concert in the world renown Carnegie Hall and released the first long play ceili record titled Echoes of Erin, featuring Martin playing The Yellow Tinker and the Sally Gardens.

After the band returned to Ireland Martin, and his wife Carmel, stayed in the USA and raised their family. He learned to play the guitar as a hobby and for the next 20 years played lead guitar and accordian in one of the top show bands in New York. Two of his daughters, Laura on piano and Sheila on the flute, were not sitting in and playing traditional music with him. All three can be heard on Father’s and Daughter’s, an album released under the Shanachie Label and produced by Mick Maloney for the Ethnic Art Center.

In 1993 Martin along with fiddler and good friend Seamus Connelly, released a new CD titled Warming Up under Green Linnet records. Also recording with Martin and Seamus is fellow Galway man Jack Coen on flute and native New Yorker Felix Dolan on piano. Warming Up features seven solos of Martin’s own compositions and has been regarded as one of the purest traditional releases for some time. It has been very well received both here in the United States and in Ireland.

Martin has long been a Comhaltas member and supporter. In the mid fifties, along with his father, they founded the first Comhaltas branch in East Galway. In 1958 while here with the Tulla Ceili Bank, he was made an honorary member for life of the Paddy Killoran branch. Both Martin and his wife Carmel are also members of the Mulligan Quinn branch. The Mulhaires make their home in Flushing, Queens and are the proud parents of Brendan, Theresa Quinn, Joanie Dever, Laura, Sheila and four grandchildren.

Martin, we solute you as our 1995 honoree to the Comhaltas music Hall of Fame.

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SEAN McGLYNN ** @

Honored February 3, 1995

Sean McGlynn was born and raised in Tynagh County Galway, an area sandwiched in between two districts long famous for the musicians they have produced; Ballinakill and Aughrimslopes. When once asked how he learned the music, Sean replied, I grew up in the middle of it. According to Sean’s theory, the music just sort of “rubbed off”. The first instrument he learned to play was the fiddle and his teacher was a Kathleen Keavaney. He later moved over onto the button accordian and he was quick to point out that the late Paddy O’Brien and Joe Cooley were two of the players who influenced his style the most. Before emigrating to the United States, Sean had played with the Leitrim, Killimor and Ballinakill Ceili Bands, all famous traditional dance bands in Ireland at that time.

Sean came to the United States in 1959 and settled in Boston. While living in Boston, he continued playing the music he loved. Along with Mike McHale (Longford-flute), Eamon Flynn (Abbeyfeale-fiddel), George Stanley (Balinasloe-drums), Des Regan (Moycullen-accordian), Frank Neylon (Claire-flute), and Paddy Cronin (Kerry-fiddle), they formed The New State Ceili Band. This group was the resident band at Bill Fullers New State Ballroom for some time. While in Boston, he met a young, gentle, and warm hearted East Galway girl named Maura Connaughton. After about four years in Boston, Sean and Maura moved to New York and were married in Astoria, Queens. They lived in Queens until they moved to Mineola, Long Island in 1968.

Sean was somewhat of an institution among Irish musicians on the East Coast. He played the music the way he felt it should be played. His easy going charm and marvelous good nature made him a natural favorite with all who knew and played with him. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word, and as an accordian player, he was second to none, especially in a session. His playing was simly the driving force behind any session he took part in.

Like many other top musicians, he was adverse to competition playing and so never entered the All-Ireland competitions. He was nevertheless recognized as one of the finest button accordian players in America. From 1976, when he appeared at the Bicentennial American Folklife festival in Washington, until the time of his death, Sean was a magnificent ambassador for Irish music in the United States. He played concerts and festivals all over the land and was the Kingpin of two national tours of Irish musicians sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts. He attracted a vast number of followers and friends everywhere he went, whether they were master musicians, beginners, enthusiasts, or just people who were curious. Sean had time for them all.

Sean was cut down in his prime by an unknown assailant’s bullet on a Queens street on January 15, 1983. And as we gather here tonight to honor his memory, we can say thank God we knew him for he left us with a host of happy memories to treasure.

Go nDeanfadh Dia trocaire ar a anam.

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MATTY CONNOLLY

Honored February 5, 1994

Matty Connolly was born in New York City and moved to Ireland with his family when he was just six years old. Hew grew up in the Scotstown area of Co Monaghan in the midst of a very musical family. His mother, Mrs. Helena Connolly, was and still is a noted fiddle player and it is her he credits in large part for his background in traditional Irish music. There was always a lot of Irish music played on various instruments in his house when he was growing up.

Matty however decided to play the uillean pipes when he first heard the renowned Co Fermanagh piper Sean McAloon. Through the efforts of the Rev. Bernard Maguire (then curate now canon) a pipers group was formed in our Lady of Fatima hall in Knockatallon. Five of that group went on to play and master full sets. Matty played at house parties and with many groups at feiseanna and other gatherings and enjoyed it all. Then in the early 1960’s Matty like many others he knew, found himself on board the steamship bound for his place of birth in the United States.

When he arrived in New York he was amazed at the high standard of music he heard. They used to have an annual boat ride up the Hudson River to Bear Mountain. It was on these outings he met the staunch men and women who had managed to keep the music going and the torch alive. Matty had trouble finding people who played the uillean pipes or who know how to maintain them. This posed a big problem for him and he stopped playing them completely for about eight years. During these years he channeled his musical talents in other directions and in 1963 formed the Majestic Showband, which included his sister Mary, his brother Peter, brother in law Arthur Sherry, Martin Mulahire and Johnny Hanley. They were the resident band at the Red Mill in the Bronx, playing three nights a week for ten consecutive years. In 1970 at the invitation of John C. Mulligan and the late Louis E. Quinn, he joined the Mineola branch of Comhaltas, under the chairmanship of John C. Mulligan.

One of the many highlights of Matty’s musical career came at the 1980 Fleadh Cheoil in Buncranna Co Donegal, where he won the senior all Ireland uilleann pipe championship. The following year, 1981, he was a member of the Comhaltas tour of the U.S.A. and Canada. In 1986, he was honored by the American Irish Musicians Society (AIMS) for his commitment and dedication to the music. He has played many festivals and conducted many workshops throughout the United States and Canada. He has also given freely of his time to many worthy causes and benefits over the years. He resides in Richmond Hill Queens with his lovely wife Bridget and their children Brian, Matthew, Patrick and Deirdre, all of whom love and play the traditional music of Ireland.

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MARTIN MULVIHILL ** @

Honored February 5, 1994

Martin was born the youngest of ten children in Ballygoughlin, West Limerick in 1919. There was always traditional music in his house; his mother played the fiddle. She taught him a few tunes, but curiously enough none of his brothers or sisters ever played an instrument.

At the age of nine he took his first formal lessons from a violin player in the neighboring town of Glin. It was from this teacher he got the rudiments of the fiddle and how to read and write music, but it was from hi smother he picked up the traditional aspects. During the next few years, Martin developed his skills and repertoire, learning some of his music from written sources such as Roche, Ker, and O’Neill collections. He picked up most of his music from local musicians mostly fiddle, flute, concertina and melodian players who played at parties, weddings, and crossroads dances. At the age of seventeen he joined the army where he played quite a share of music playing for the ceilithe in the Castlebar area.

In 1951 he emigrated to England and settled in Northampton where he lived and worked for the next 14 years. While there he married Olive McEvoy from Co Ofaly and over the next nine years Brendan, Brian, Gail and Dawn were born. Martin continued his musical activities playing with the Dublin man Tommy Murray in dance halls and clubs during the evenings and weekends. He also took lessons on the button and piano accordions. The latter became his main instrument for several years. It was most suited for playing the cross section of music demanded in the Irish clubs of Northampton during that era.

Despite this long residence in England, Martin had always wanted to go to America, and in 1965 the Mulvihill family set out for New York City. America was a strange new environment for all the family b ut they adjusted rapidly. Martin worked at various jobs in New York while he still continued to play music in his spare time. At the suggestion of his cousin Jerry Mulvihill he began to give lessons to some local Irish American children in the Bronx. Within a short period of time the demand for his teaching grew rapidly in the tri state area so much so that Martin gave up his job and took up teaching music seven days a week. His reputation as a teacher was enormous and his pupils have achieved spectacular success both in America and in Ireland. Many of his students went on to start their own music schools.

Martin’s success as a teacher somewhat obscured his own musical talents, along with writing a book, he also composed roughly twenty-five tunes. All the Mulvihill family are extremely accomplished musicians – Brendan on the fiddle, Brian on drums, Gail on tenor banjo, Dawn on fiddle and tin whistle. Their talents make it certain that Martin’s music will endure through the next generations of musicians in America.

While on vacation in Ireland on July 21, 1987, Martin suffered a heart attack and died in his own beloved country of Limerick. He had been scheduled to perform at the Eagle Tavern along with his long time friend Mike Rafferty during the month of September 1987. Instead, the Eagle presented a musical tribute to Martin featuring some of the musicians who learned from and played with him. These included Mary Rafferty, Kenneth Vesey and Martin (Buddy) Connolly who opened the show and were joined by Mike Rafferty and Don Meade.

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PETE KELLY

Honored February 6, 1993

Born the youngest of twelve children to the late Peter and Kate Kelly at Curries Ballymoe Co Galway. At age twelve started taking music lessons from Leo Bernie, and step dance lessons from Domnic O’Connor. At an early age he began playing with the Ivy Castle Dance Band and toured extensively in the west of Ireland. He emigrated to England to study at St. Richards College. While in college he was introduced to classical music and continued to play violin in the college orchestra.

Returning to Ireland in 1956 he joined the then popular “Premier Acres” showband. In 1958 Pete returned to Manchester registered at the Northern School of Music. He was accepted with the ballroom orchestra at the Sharrocks Royal Palais. In 1959 the orchestra did an extensive two week tour of Ireland under the name “The Skyliners”. Pete did not return to England after the tour, instead he set out for the new world and arrived in New York on October 24^th 1959.

He served a two-year hitch in the U.S. army at Fort Dix New Jersey. Upon discharge he went to work for Chase Manhattan in their International accounts Dept. He joined the Irish Musicians Association where he met with the Murray brothers Pat and Michael. Together along with a few more musicians a Ceili Band was formed and was known as the “Shandon Airs”.

During the same year he started teaching a small number of students and formed the first ever junior Ceili bank to compete in the New York area. They became the forerunners of what would later become the renowned “Shannonairs”. With some encouragement from Jerry Mulvihill, Pete opened a music school in the Bronx. The number of students grew so rapidly that teaching music became like a full time job. The list of students from those early years, today reads like a who’s who in the field of Irish music and entertainment.

The Shannonairs were the first junior group of Irish American musicians to cross the Atlantic and bring their own interpretation of Irish music to the land of their forefathers. On June 17^th 1976, on behalf of the Shannoairs, Pete accepted a Certificate of Merit in recognition of their outstanding contribution made to the City of New York during the 200^th anniversary celebration of American Independence. Signed Abraham D Beam Mayor of the City of New York. During the seventies and eighties Pete and the Shannonairs did several tours of Ireland and were well received wherever they entertained. The Shannonairs also recorded an album titled “Let The Children Play”.

In 1965 Pete married the lovely Anne White from Terenure Dublin. They are now the proud parents of six children, four girls and two boys. The oldest girl Deirdre is currently doing a tour of duty with the US Navy in Spain and will be married on Saturday Feb 13^th. The entire Kelly clan will be flying out during the week for a Spain wedding. Second oldest Collete has taken after Dad and is currently teaching music in the Westchester school system. She is married to Joseph Gallante and last July made Pete and Ann proud grandparents of Joseph Michael. Moira the third eldest girl has become internationally known in the movie industry. She has played a leading role in the movie “The Cutting Edge” and just recently before Christmas 1992 along with Mom and Dad attended the Royal Premiere of the movie “Chaplin” where she plays two major parts. During the London trip Pete, Anne and Moira were introduced to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Tracey who is studying in Buffalo NY will graduate this May with degrees in nursing and social work. Peter Noel is currently studying at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Michael the youngest is a third year high school student and has been selected to represent his school district in the all State and all Eastern music competitions to be held in Springfield Mass. this coming March.

During his hectic career Pete found time to write the words and music for a complete album entitled “Pete Kelly”, The Man from Galway. During the sixties along with Paddy Reynolds and the late John Glynn, Pete performed on both the Ed Sullivan and Merv Griffin shows. Pete is currently conducting music classes a The Irish American Center Mineola and in the Woodlawn area of the Bronx. He resides with his wife Anne and son Michael in Ronkonkoma Long Island NY. Pete, we salute you as our inductee to The Comhaltas Hall of Fame for 1993.

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MARTIN WYNNE **

Honored February 6, 1993

Born in Buninadden Co Sligo some 79 years ago, Martin grew up in an area steeped in traditional music. He took up the fiddle at an early age, and throughout his life he has been a man of shy and retiring nature and so like the proverbial prophet he neither sought nor achieved fame in his own area. In the forties like many other young Irishmen, he boarded the emigrant ship for England and settled in London. At that time, dances were held six nights a week and Monday was the exception.

The Banba Club in Kilburn and the Blarney Club Tottenham Court Road held dances on Saturday afternoons as well as Sunday nights. Martin joined the Johnny Muldoon outfit and for some years was a familiar figure in the band that played in the Garryowen Club in Hammersmith as well as the Shannon Club in Kilburn. He remembers that most members of the band were English born and played from sheet music. Two long serving Comhaltas stalwarts still active on the London scene Dick Landers and Edmond Murphy remember the band and mention that another member of the band was the late and great West Limerick flute player Paddy Taylor.

In 1948 Marting set sail for New York and has resided here ever since. Those were the halcyon days of traditional music in New York. He would loved to have met the great Michael Coleman but as he says in his own witty manner Coleman cheated on me by three years twice. He left his native Killavil three years before I was born and went to heaven three years before I arrived in New York. Jimmy Morrison was also gone to his eternal reward. In the years following his arrival in New York, Martin bought the 78’s of Morrison and Coleman. He played them over and over endeavoring to analyze their styles and intricacies of their playing. Paddy Killoran was still going strong and his club on Saturday night was a big attraction for the exiles who came to hear him and his Irish Minstels and to watch and dance the Clare sets.

Coleman, Morrison, and Killoran figure prominently among Martin’s favorite fiddle players. However, he rates the late Jim Lad O Beirne as one of the all time greats. Martin went to work for Con Edison and here he met another recent arrival from the old sod – the late Tyrone born Jim Conway. Down the years Martin has offered valuable technical advice to many young aspiring fiddlers. One yong man who deeply appreciated and benefited from such advice was Brian Conway, son of Jim’s. Brian speaks in glowing terms of Martin’s advice on bowing techniques as well as his exhortations not to speed the music. Martin has also high praise for New York fiddler Andy McGann. He also mentions another Sligo musician, Tom Gannon, who composed a number of tunes. He also met the great prolific composer, the late Ed Reavy from Cavan and is loud in praise of his compositions.

Unfortunately, Martin never made a commercial recording. However, together with Lad O Beirne, they made a few non-commercial discs that are real gems. He also recorded a few such discus with fellow Sligo man Vince Harrison. Apart from his playing, Martin is a great veritable mine on the origin and setting of tunes. He can quote Cole’s Book, White’s Book or O’Neill’s book and can tell you that the last bar of Father Tom’s Wager as played today is not as it was written, nor as it was recorded by the Cawly, Cashin Trio in Chicago many years ago. He will also let you know that, a reel commonly known as Andy McGann’s was, in fact dressed by Lad O Beirne. Lad also composed or dressed a reel known as the Geese in the Bog.

To the young musicians of today the name of Martin Wynne is linked to three popular reels known as Martin Wynne’s No 1, No 2, No 3. What is remarkable about these three tunes is the fact that they form part of a series of five or six tunes composed by Martin back in the thirties when he lived in Buninadden Co Slio. Since then, he has not composed even one tune, however one of his reels was sent to Dublin by the late Willie Coleman and it subsequently appeared in one of Brendan Breathnach’s publications. In recent years he was loath to play a solo but loved to play in a session and frequently participated in Comhaltas sessions around the New York area. He enjoyed playing and would have no part in group playing of such variable tunes as Bonny Kate and Jenny’s Chickens. When asked to play other familiar tunes he would refrain saying that they were not prepared and packaged.

Martin Wynne personifies a once great tradition that in the relative recent past sputtered for awhile, but is now enjoying a new lease of life. The 1989 Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann was a milestone in the life of this renowned fiddler and composer. Not alone was this the first time that Ireland’s premiere cultural event that held in his native Sligo but the organizing committee set a welcome precedent by unanimously electing Martin to the prestigious position of Uachtaran na Fleidhe. Martin Wynne is the last remaining link with the great fiddle players from Sligo, who at home and abroad have set standards that all aspiring young fiddlers try to emulate.

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MIKE RAFFERTY

honored November 30, 1990

www.raffertymusic.com

It gives me great pleasure to welcome our second inductee into the C.C.E. Hall of Fame, Mike Rafferty from Ballinakill, Co. Galway. Mike has always been to the fore in promoting Irish music. We are fortunate to have a flute player of his caliber to induct here tonight. His devotion to music is best exemplified by his teaching of the younger generation. We can look forward to the future with confidence in the passing on of some of his limitless tunes.

Mike arrived in the US in 1949 and lived in White Plains for awhile. He played with some of the greats in music over the years including Joe Burke, Joe Madden, Jack Coen, Paddy Reynolds and the late Sean McGlynn. He moved to New Jersey after his marriage to his beautiful wife, Teresa. They are the proud parents of five children, Kathleen, Teresa, Michael, Patrick, and Mary Bridget; and four grandchildren Tony, Amy, Keith, and Amanda.

It is right and fitting that Mike should be our second inductee into the Hall of Fame as he epitomizes the best in the Music of Galway and will continue to do so for a long time to come. Whenever traditional music is heard, Mike is bound to be in the center.

CEAD MILE FAILTA A MICEAL

AGUS GAC BEANNACT

Jack Whelan

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TOM DOHERTY **

Honored May 11, 1990

Tom Doherty, born in Mountcharles, Co. Donegal, in 1913, is one of the last of the great melodeon players in America who plays in the old-country style long since vanished from the Irish traditional music mainstream.

Both of Tom’s parents were musicians; his mother played the fiddle and his father, who was a farmer, played the single-row melodeon. There was lots of music played in his part of Donegal, particularly on fiddle and accordian. People would get together for music and singing at house parties during the winter and during the summer the musicians would play for crossroads dancing. Tom started on the fiddle but was much more successful with the melodeon. He never had any formal lessons on the instrument, but picked it up on his own, putting in long hours of practice, and from listening to other players. “I would take the melodeon,” he says, “ and go outside and practice. I used to put the cattle made in the outhouse!” In 1948, Tom emigrated to New York City because there was no work in Donegal. He got a full-time job in the cold storage business and on weekends played music, often appearing at some of the famous Irish dance hall in New York. In 1952, Tom married Mary Philbin, from Castlebar, Co. Mayo, and they settled in Brooklyn. They have two daughters, both musicians, Eileen Breslin, who lives in Connecticut and has made Tom twice a grandfather, and Maureen, and active Irish traditional musician in the New York area, playing accordian, tin whistle, and flute, who appeared with Tom in the Father-and-Daughters concert.

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@ - Honored Posthumously

** - R.I.P.