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2 unusual facts about Séamus Ennis


Patsy Touhey

Asked whether Touhey's recordings had influenced his own playing, Gildas replied, "No, I was learning the pipes at the time." However generally pipers were in awe of Touhey's playing; Séamus Ennis, writing in the liner notes of Dublin fiddler Tommy Potts's Liffey Banks LP, said that he and his father considered Touhey's playing "hyper-phenomenal," and that he considered Touhey "the best of the men who came before my father."

Séamus Ennis

In 1951, Alan Lomax and Jean Ritchie arrived from America to record Irish songs and tunes.


Colm Ó Lochlainn

Seamus Ennis was godfather to Colm's son Ruan, a renowned musician who played with Bees Make Honey and appeared on recordings with artists such as Bryan Ferry, Link Wray and who was a founding member of Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance.

John Lorne Campbell

Most of the airs of the Cape Breton Gaelic songs have been transcribed by the late Seamus Ennis when working for the Irish Folklore Commission.

Na Ceannabháin Bhána

It was collected by Séamus Ennis from Colm Ó Caoidheáin who is thought to have written it for his two fairhaired (bán) grandchildren whose surname was Canavan / Ó Ceannabháin.


see also