Darach Ó Catháin

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Darach Ó Catháin (30 September 1922 – 29 September 1987) was an Irish sean-nós singer who became one of the most important figures in traditional Irish music. He was born in Maimin, Lettermore, Connemara, the seventh of twelve children. In English records his birth name appears as Dudley Keane. The family moved in 1935 to the Gaeltacht of Ráth Chairn in County Meath, where he learned many songs from his mother. By the late 1950s he was recognized as one of Ireland’s finest sean-nós singers.

In the early 1960s, Seán Ó Riada featured Ó Catháin in his RTÉ Radio 1 series Reacaireacht an Riadaigh, a breakthrough program that helped transform traditional Irish music. A commercial recording followed in 1962, helping to inspire Ceoltóirí Cualann and, later, The Chieftains. Ó Catháin married Bríd at about 19 and worked as a labourer on building sites in London and the north of England while performing. In 1963 he decided his family’s future lay in Leeds, England; Bríd sold the family home and moved the family to Yorkshire.

He released the album Traditional Irish Unaccompanied Singing in 1975, which cemented his reputation as one of the greatest sean-nós singers. He won Ireland’s Best sean-nós Singer prize at the Oireachtas in 1967 and received the Ó Riada Trophy.

The Kane family stayed in Leeds, and Ó Catháin’s life and music have been the subject of television work, including a major RTÉ feature and the TG4 documentary Cérbh É? Darach Ó Catháin (first broadcast in 2009). He is remembered for his belief that art is always in the music: “When you’ve music in you, you’re hearing music always.”