Paddy Fahey (or Fahy, 22 August 1916 – 31 May 2019) was an Irish composer and fiddler who was considered one of the finest living composers of tunes that are in the style of

traditional Irish music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there w ...

. Fahey is from

Kilconnell Kilconnell () is a small rural village in County Galway, Ireland. The village gives its name to the barony of Kilconnell, formerly held by the Lords de Freyne. In 2006 David Tye purchased the original feudal Barony of Kilconnell created in 1170 ...

in East Galway. His music has a distinctive yearning, magical quality often referred to as "''Draíocht''". His music has been recorded by many of the finest traditional Irish musicians including Martin Hayes,

Planxty Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars ...

, John Carty and Kevin Burke. In recent years, a few recordings featured Fahey's music prominently including recordings by Liz and

Yvonne Kane Yvonne is a female given name. It is the feminine form of Yvon, which is derived from the French name Yves and Yvette. It is from the French word ''iv'', meaning "yew" (or tree). Since yew wood was used for bows, Ivo may have been an occupati ...

and

Breda Keville Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

. Fahey was something of an enigma in the traditional Irish music world in that he has never made a commercial recording despite the fact that he is an exceptional fiddler; nor has he published a book of his compositions. There are some privately made recordings of Fahey which have been distributed among musicians since the 1970s, and transcriptions of his tunes are found in many tune collections and on Internet resources such as ''www.thesession.org''. Fahey never gave his compositions names; instead they tend to be simply named "Paddy Fahey's Reel No.1", "Paddy Fahey's Jig No.2", etc. His known compositions number around 60 tunes, all of which are either

jig The jig ( ga, port, gd, port-cruinn) is a form of lively folk dance in compound metre, as well as the accompanying dance tune. It is most associated with Irish music and dance. It first gained popularity in 16th-century Ireland and parts o ...

reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...

s or

hornpipe The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others r ...

s. In 2001 Fahey was named Composer of The Year by Irish Language TV station

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

at their annual award ceremony 'Gradam Ceoil TG4'. The award ceremony incorporated an extremely rare public performance with Paddy appearing alongside fellow fiddler

Paddy Canny Paddy Canny (1919 – 28 June 2008) was an Irish fiddle player. In a career that spanned over six decades, Canny was instrumental in popularizing Irish traditional music, both in Ireland and internationally. He gained initial fame in the late ...

, harpist Máire Ní Chathasaigh, the band Altan and others. He died in May 2019 at the age of 102.

Literary sources

*Vallely, Fintan (ed.), ''The Companion to Traditional Irish Music.'' Cork University Press, Cork, 1999 *Holohan, Maria. ''The Tune Compositions of Paddy Fahey.'' MA Thesis, University of Limerick, 1995

References

External links

RamblingHouse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahey, Paddy 1916 births 2019 deaths Composers for fiddle Irish centenarians Irish male fiddlers Men centenarians Musicians from County Galway 20th-century Irish male musicians 20th-century Irish fiddlers 21st-century Irish male musicians 21st-century Irish fiddlers 20th-century Irish composers 21st-century Irish composers