Before Riverdance became a global Irish dance sensation, and standing apart from the raucous and good-time Irish music of the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners and the Pogues, there was the Chieftains: Irish traditional music, arranged and played in an exciting and popular style without compromising its integrity.
Paddy Moloney, on uilleann pipes and whistle,may have been the central figure and spokesperson for the band, but his fellow musicians were just as accomplished. Seán Keane, who has died aged 76, became the band’s lead fiddle player, first playing with the Chieftains in 1968 and making his last appearance with them in April to perform for President Joe Biden on his visit to Ireland. He was a virtuoso musician, displaying a technical mastery of the fiddle that few could equal.
