Liam O’Flynn, Irish uilleann piper and Irish traditional musician, is born on September 15, 1945, in Kill, County Kildare. In addition to a solo career and as a member of Planxty, he records with Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Kate Bush, Mark Knopfler, The Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Mike Oldfield, Mary Black, Enya and Sinéad O’Connor.
O’Flynn is acknowledged as Ireland’s foremost exponent of the uilleann pipes and brings the music of the instrument to a worldwide audience. In 2007, he is named TG4 Musician of the Year at the Gradam Ceoil TG4, considered to be the foremost recognition given to traditional Irish musicians.
O’Flynn is born to musical parents. His father, Liam, is a teacher and fiddle player. His mother, Maisie (née Scanlan), who comes from a family of musicians from County Clare, plays and teaches piano. From an early age, he shows musical talent, and is encouraged to pursue his interest in the uilleann pipes by the piper Tom Armstrong. At the age of 11, he begins taking classes with Leo Rowsome. He is also influenced by Willie Clancy and Séamus Ennis. In the 1960s, he begins to receive recognition of his talent, winning prizes at the Oireachtas na Gaeilge and the Fleadh Cheoil. During his early years, he is sometimes billed as Liam Óg Ó Flynn.
In 1972, O’Flynn co-founds the Irish traditional music group Planxty, alongside Christy Moore, Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny and remains a member throughout the band’s various incarnations. While Seán Ó Riada and The Chieftains had reinvigorated Irish traditional instrumental music in an ensemble format during the 1960s, Planxty builds on that foundation and takes it one step further. They bring a punch and vitality to acoustic music that draws heavily on O’Flynn’s piping virtuosity.
As O’Flynn grows in his skill as a musician and as he begins to meet pipers like Willie Clancy and Séamus Ennis, he becomes acutely aware of his position in the tradition of piping. His subsequent close friendship with Ennis, which starts as a master/pupil relationship, teaches him that there is much more to being a piper than playing tunes. He notes, “Seamus Ennis gave me much more than a bag of notes.”
“When I’m playing, I’m certainly lost within it. The only way to describe it, is that it’s like looking inwards. I think when a performer engages with the audience, and vice versa, it’s like a spell is cast and a terrific passage of feelings moves from the musician to the audience and back again.”
Following the break-up of Planxty in 1983, O’Flynn finds work as a session musician with such prominent artists as The Everly Brothers, Enya, Kate Bush, Nigel Kennedy, Rita Connolly, and Mark Knopfler. He also works on film scores, including Kidnapped (1979) and A River Runs Through It (1992). He is adventurous enough to work with avant-garde composer John Cage, but his most natural alliance is with neo-romantic composer Shaun Davey.
The Bothy Band are natural successors to the original Planxty, and one of its members, Matt Molloy, who subsequently joins The Chieftains, plays with The Chieftains’ fiddler Seán Keane on O’Flynn’s album, The Piper’s Call, which is performed in the 1999 BBC Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall. He also works on projects with Seamus Heaney, mixing poetry with music.
O’Flynn’s name is mentioned in Christy Moore’s song “Lisdoonvarna.”
O’Flynn dies in a Dublin hospital on March 14, 2018, following a long illness. His cremated remains rest at Newlands Cross Cemetery and Crematorium in Dublin.
The Liam O’Flynn Award is awarded each year by the Arts Council and the National Concert Hall to recognise individual creativity in Traditional Irish music. Awardees include Úna Monaghan, Barry Kerr, Jack Talty, Louise Mulcahy and Strange Boy (aka Jordan Kelly).
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