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Andy McGann, born in west Harlem in 1928, was the young Yankee in the group of immigrants in Lad O’Beirne’s circle. His parents were good friends of Michael Coleman, who gave the boy a music stand and much encouragement. Andy got more hands-on instruction from Catherine Brennan-Grant, who gave Andy a foundation in classical violin technique, lending a polished elegance to his Sligo-style traditional music repertoire.

Andy McGann’s elegant and urbane interpretation of the classic Sligo repertoire and style brought him a deserved reputation as America’s finest home-grown Irish fiddle player. His father Andrew and mother Margaret were immigrants from Marlow, Ballymote and nearby Keash in south County Sligo. When Andy was born, the family lived in west Harlem but moved soon thereafter to 140th Street and Cypress Avenue in the south Bronx, a neighbourhood that in the 1930s and 1940s was home to many of the finest Irish musicians in America, including Sligo fiddle greats Paddy Killoran and James Lad O’Beirne.

With his brother John, Andy took step dancing lessons from Kerry master Seán Murphy. J.P. Cuffe, a family friend, interested the boy in playing the fiddle. His father tried to get another friend, Michael Coleman, to give Andy lessons but Coleman didn’t teach beginners. He did, however, give the seven-year-old Andy a music stand and much encouragement. For hands-on instruction, they turned instead to Catherine Brennan, a classically trained violinist who had been adopted into the Sligo fiddle fraternity in New York. Andy studied Irish and classical music with Brennan for five years and got a further dose of classical education as a teenager in the orchestra at Cardinal Hayes High School. By this time, Andy was sufficiently advanced to be able to play with Coleman during the master’s visits to (and occasional residence in) the McGann home. He maintained a musical friendship with Coleman until the latter’s death in 1945.

Andy was a frequent attendee at sessions in Lad O’Beirne’s apartment in the 1940s, sitting in with the fiddling aristocracy that gravitated to O’Beirne, a coterie that included Louis Quinn and Philadelphia-based composer Ed Reavy. In 1948, he struck up a friendship with Longford immigrant Paddy Reynolds, another follower of O’Beirne. Andy and Paddy formed a musical partnership that lasted for decades, playing at parties, Gaelic League céilidhe and dancing feiseanna, often taking gigs passed to them by Paddy Killoran, who took a small commission for the referrals.

In 1958, Andy was one of the founders of the New York Céilí Band, an all-star ensemble that included button accordionist Paddy O’Brien, then living in New York, as well as fellow fiddlers Paddy Reynolds and Larry Redican. He recorded a couple of unreleased tracks with the band, but family and work commitments prevented him from joining them when, in 1960, they flew to Ireland to compete at the fleadh in Boyle.

Andy’s other lasting musical partnership was with Galway button accordionist Joe Burke, who lived in New York from 1962 to 1965 and was a frequent visitor thereafter. It was Burke who gave Andy, at age 37, his first chance to make a studio recording. A Tribute to Michael Coleman, recorded in a few hours with Burke and pianist Felix Dolan, was issued in 1965 on Burke’s own Shaskeen label. Issued at a time when very few Irish traditional music records were being made, this disc, which includes several outstanding McGann solo tracks, was one of the most influential traditional albums of the 1960s.

When Dan Collins and Rich Nevins founded Shanachie Records in 1975, Andy again got the opportunity to record. His first LP for the label was a duet outing with Paddy Reynolds, backed by a young Paul Brady on guitar. A solo disc, again with Brady, followed in 1977 and The Funny Reel, a reunion with Joe Burke and Felix Dolan, in 1979.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Andy played bar gigs in New York with a series of singer/guitarists who included Corkman Donie Carroll. He was often joined at these engagements by Leitrim button accordionist Gus Murray, Kerrymen Johnny “Fiddle” Cronin and Johnny “Accordion” Cronin or Kilkenny native Joe “Banjo” Burke. Andy made occasional visits to St. Louis in these years to play with Joe Burke at McGurk’s pub and was in demand to play at traditional music festivals and concerts in New York, the Catskills and Philadelphia, occasionally reuniting with Paddy Reynolds at these engagements.

The esteem in which Andy’s music was held in Ireland was seen in 1990, when he was flown across the Atlantic to serve as the honorary president of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, held that year in Sligo Town. He returned in 1992 to perform at a Sligo fiddlers concert in Tubbercurry.

Echoes of Andy McGann’s music are still heard in New York today in the playing of Brian Conway and his students. The 1986 All-Ireland fiddle champion was taught more directly by Martin Mulvihill and Martin Wynne but was strongly influenced by Andy’s playing. Brian, in turn, has passed on McGann’s style and repertoire to Pat Mangan and many other younger fiddlers. Andy’s final studio recording session was a guest appearance on Conway’s 2002 Smithsonian disc First Through the Gate, on which the old master joined Conway and Mangan in seamless fiddle duets and trios.

Andy McGann, who worked as an accountant and bookkeeper, was married twice. With his first wife, Marie, he had four sons. Some years after her death, he married Patricia, with whom he had a daughter, Meghan, a flute player and step dancer. Andy succumbed to cancer in 2004 and was interred, with a fiddle-playing guard of honour at the graveside, in St. Raymond’s cemetery in the Bronx, where his monument stands not far from those of Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran and James Morrison.

Josephine Keegan was born of Irish parents in Dundee, Scotland in 1935 and at the age of four came to live with her family in South Armagh. She began to play piano and fiddle when she was about six, being taught by both parents at home and later took formal lessons. Josephine studied classical music on both instruments as well as playing traditional music and won many prizes at competitions throughout Ireland. She won a gold medal at the Feis Ceoil in Dublin and later won the gold medal at the All-Ireland Fiddle Championship at the Oireachtas in 1955.

After that fiddle playing took a back seat and she concentrated on being a piano accompanist to other musicians, including Joe Burke and Seán Magure. She recorded her first of five solo albums in 1976 and in 2006, after a gap of twenty five years she recorded a new solo album. Josephine is known as a great musician, a collector and a composer of tunes.

In 2003 Josephine received a special award at Boston College in appreciation of her life-long dedication to our music and her invaluable contribution to Irish Cultural preservation.

In 2005 she won the TG4 composer of the year award.

Seán Keane earned world renown as a pivotal member of The Chieftains who he joined in 1968 after coming to prominence with Ceoltóirí Chualann and the Castle Céilí Band earlier in the decade.

His powerful fiddle playing married technical virtuosity with an incredibly insightful and sensitive understanding of what made Irish traditional music distinctively beautiful. He was a beacon for our traditional art.

His professional career spanned nearly 60 years and his output was extraordinarily prolific, with The Chieftains, with musical confidantes Matt Molloy, Liam O’Flynn and many others and, strikingly, as an exceptional soloist. His 1975 recording Gusty’s Frolics is an enduring classic of Irish art. It was recorded the day after The Chieftains had performed in the Albert Hall for the first time. His other two solo recordings Seán Keane and Jig It In Style are essential parts of the canon of Irish music.

The body of breathtakingly brilliant non-commercial recordings in existence in ITMA is equally incredible, franking a very productive and important period in the history of music in Ireland.

Seán attributed his inspiration to his parents, from Clare and Longford respectively, and his connection with what he described as the ‘old music’ honed creatively through the generations and passed on to himself and his brother James as children.

Born in 1946, Seán grew up in the south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh and though imbued with music from the cradle, his technical development was strengthened by formal tuition in the School of Music and attentive listening to the great gramophone-era recordings of the Sligo master fiddlers Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran along with Dubliner Frank O’Higgins.

He displayed an insatiable desire to learn the very best of what traditional music had to offer, frequenting the old Church Street and Pipers Clubs in Dublin and traversing the country as a youngster with his lifelong friend Mick O’Connor, playing with and learning from legends like Willie Clancy, Séamus Ennis and sean-nós singer Seosamh Ó hÉanaí.

He absorbed the unique components of the regional fiddle styles – the music of Pádraig O’Keeffe in Sliabh Luachra, John Kelly, Bobby Casey, Patrick Kelly and Joe Ryan in West Clare and John Doherty in Donegal. He also had a great love for the great Scottish fiddle music of Scott Skinner which formed a rich part of Seán’s expansive repertoire.

He was also very taken by the distinctive and vocal qualities of the uilleann pipes which influenced his highly stylized and original fiddle ornamentation.

The result was the emergence of a master, whose artistic ambition was unfettered.

He loved every minute of his career with The Chieftains and was deeply grateful to Paddy Moloney for his enduring leadership. They formed a very special bond musically and personally. Equally Seán carried great respect for Seán Ó Riada and the experience of sharing a creative period with musicians like Sonny Brogan, John Kelly, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy.

Naturally inquisitive and ambitious as a fiddle player, Seán always enjoyed working with different musicians and genres and excelled as a collaborator cherishing the opportunities afforded to him through The Chieftains.

However, he was single-minded in his respect for, and his interest in, source. He was utterly unpretentious, always returning to what inspired him – the great music passed down through our folk tradition. He never felt any contradiction that the ‘palette’ from which he drew as an artist was Irish traditional music.

Arriving back from an arduous Chieftains tour he could be practicing with Matt Molloy on a duet performance or recording within days. This rapport he shared with Molloy yielded Contentment is Wealth, one of the greatest recordings of Irish music.

He always made time to attend the annual Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, local performances and sessions and understood the existential importance of the Irish music community.

ITMA were honoured to have worked with Seán in making a documentary film in 2022. “A Portrait of an Artist: Seán Keane”, was shown at Miltown Malbay last July.

Clare held a very special place in Seán’s heart. His soulmate Marie, who he lost tragically in March 2020, hailed from Ennistymon. A kindred spirit, Marie was the bedrock of Seán’s life supporting his artistic career and as he said himself, essentially rearing their three children Páraic, Deirdre and Darach in his absence with the band.

Family was everything to Seán extending to his adoration for his grandchildren, palpable whenever the family would gather at musical events.