Seán Keane ( ga, Seán Ó Catháin; born 12 July 1946) is an Irish fiddler, teacher and former member of The Chieftains. He was a member of

Ceoltóirí Chualann Ceoltóirí Chualann (pronounced ) was an Irish traditional band, led by Seán Ó Riada, which included many of the founding members of The Chieftains. Ceoltóirí is the Irish word for musicians, and Cualann is the name of an area just outsid ...

in the 1960s, before joining The Chieftains in 1968. He has a unique style, especially in his use of ornamentation, perhaps influenced by the music of the uilleann pipes.

Early life

Keane was born into a musical family in Drimnagh, a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. Keane's mother and father were both fiddle players from musical communities in

County Longford County Longford ( gle, Contae an Longfoirt) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 46,6 ...

and County Clare, respectively, and would host many traditional players who traveled from all over Ireland to perform in Dublin city. The Keane household became a landmark in Dublin's traditional music scene in the 1950s and 1960s. These guests greatly influenced Keane and his brother, James, an

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

player, as did their summer trips to Longford and Clare where they encountered much traditional music.

Legacy

In May 1981, Keane was profiled on RTÉ's ''Hand Me Down'' series, which looks at how traditional music is handed on from generation to generation. Each program features a traditional artist and looks at how they inherited Irish music from their family. In this extract from the program, Keane plays solo before accompanying members of the Castle Céilí Band with the Mullagh set dancers at the Willie Clancy Summer School. The Castle Céilí Band were reformed especially for the program which is now archived in the

RTÉ Libraries and Archives The RTÉ Libraries and Archives are a collection of photographs, sounds recordings, video footage and written records (of articles such as scripts) in various formats across a wide range of topics pertaining to Irish life and society. The colle ...

. In March 2019, Keane was featured on Season 8 episode 1 of TG4's documentary series '' 'Sé Mo Laoch'', which features on some of Ireland's greatest traditional musicians. The 25 minute-long documentary looked at his life and career from his childhood up until the present day and is archived on

TG4 Player 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 a ...

Personal life

Keane is married and has three children, Deirdre, Páraic and Darach. Darach and Páraic are both excellent musicians. The majority of Seán's grandchildren play: Molly, Alex and Ella play fiddle. Loulou and Clara play concertina. Ruby plays cell, while Jack plays uilleann pipes/tin whistle. His other grandchildren are Doireann, Páidí and Seán Óg.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''Gusty's Frolics'' (1975) * ''Seán Keane'' (1982) * ''Jig it in Style'' (1990)

Collaborations

* ''Reel Away the Real World'' (with James Keane and Mick Moloney) (1980) * ''Contentment is Wealth'' (with Matt Molloy) (1985) * ''The Fire Aflame'' (with Matt Molloy and Liam O'Flynn) (1993) * ''Fire in the Kitchen'' (with Paddy Moloney) (1998)

References

External links

*
Irish Traditional Music Archive

''Hand Me Down'' (RTÉ Archives)

Sé Mo Laoch'' (TG4 Player)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keane, Seán 1946 births Living people 20th-century violinists 21st-century violinists Ceoltóirí Chualann members Claddagh Records artists Dublin fiddlers Irish fiddlers Irish folk musicians Musicians from County Dublin The Chieftains members