A tribute to the master, Séamus Creagh, at the Cork Folk Festival

As Cork Folk Festival remembers Séamus Creagh, Richard Fitzpatrick hears about a brilliant musician who was also a much-loved man

ONE of the curious things about the master fiddler Séamus Creagh was that he didn’t come from a traditional music stronghold. He was born in the parish of Killucan, Co Westmeath, in 1946. His family had little interest in trad, and he only knew of one fiddle player, Larry Ward, locally.

“He was out of the norm. He used to say he was a changeling,” says William Hammond, the organiser of the Cork Folk Festival, which is holding a tribute night next Saturday in Creagh’s memory.