Pádraig O’Keeffe and Denis Murphy — Lyons’ Bar, 1961

In 1961 Denis Murphy was home on holidays from America and looking forward to meeting up with his old friend and teacher Pádraig O’Keeffe. Jack Lyons’ pub in Scartaglin was the closest thing to a local that Pádraig had, and was the usual spot for the two to meet for a drink and a tune. As it happens, someone (maybe Séamus Ennis?) fortuitously recorded this session, and we can now listen back to this musical conversation between two of the great men of Sliabh Luachra music.

Here’s one of the 38 tracks:
Pádraig and Denis play a unique setting of The Bucks of Oranmore

This recording came to me through circuitous means, and and as such I had no knowledge of who the original tape belonged to, or what sort of travels it had before it ended up with me. They were labelled as “secret” recordings, but for whom and from whom was the secret meant to be kept? Though these questions remain unresolved, recently it has come to light that it’s more of an “open secret” than I had realized. I spoke to someone who was given the recording early on, and is largely responsible for it being more widely known, and this person made a convincing case for sharing the recording freely. Seeing as how this is an important part of the cultural heritage, and that anyone with a keen interest in this music deserves to hear it, I’ve decided to post it here. It is an informal recording, not a performance, and some of the playing is rough and off the cuff, but I don’t think it can possibly diminish the reputation of either of these two giants. 

If anyone has more information about the context for this recording, or some of the missing tune names, or anything like that, please comment here or email me!

Special thanks to Gerry Harrington tracking down some tune names and supplying some of the history behind this beautiful recording.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS HISTORIC RECORDING