Denis Murphy

Denis Murphy (November 14, 1910 – April 7, 1974) was born in Lisheen, Gneeveguilla, County Kerry one of eight children of Bill and Mainie (née Corbett) Murphy. The family were known locally as the “Waivers” (to distinguish them from the many other Murphy clans in the area) because in previous generations they had been weavers of flax linen. His father Bill played fife, flute and fiddle and had a fife and drum band, and it’s likely that Denis got much of his early music from his father. Later, he and his sister Julia Clifford were taught fiddle by Pádraig O’Keeffe. Denis emigrated to the United States but returned often to Ireland and returned permanently to Lisheen in 1965. He struck up a musical partnership with box player Johnny O’Leary which lasted for many years until his death. Denis was recorded extensively for the radio and commercial recordings, and his driving, frictionless style has been hugely influential

Denis with his wife Julia Mary

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Denis plays while his friend and teacher Padraig O’Keeffe dances a step!

Denis in America

 Learned from: Bill “The Weaver” Murphy, Pádraig O’Keeffe

 Played with: Julia Clifford, Johnny O’Leary

 Recordings:

More resources:

Snippets of field recordings

Alan Ward’s overview of Sliabh Luachra music, with an extensive section on The Waivers

A New and Exciting Resource:
ProjectDenis

ProjectDenis is the brainchild of Anton Zille, who was inspired to to catalogue the wealth of Denis Murphy’s wonderful music scattered across the archives, the attics, the largely out-of-print albums and the web in one easy-to-search app. He says: “There are 700-ish items in this work-in-progress database right now, including albums, tapes, 78s, individual tracks and unique tunes, and the more research I do, the more I’m convinced that I’m only just scratching the surface! With so much unexplored material out there, one can be sure they’ll find some gems waiting to be discovered, played and shared – and my app is meant to be a reference map in that search.”