Kevin Burke adds another string to his bow with Gradam Ceoil honour

As Kevin Burke picks up his Gradam Ceoil honour, he tells Richard Fitzpatrick how a boy from London in the Swinging Sixties ended up becoming a top Irish fiddle player

KEVIN BURKE’S parents emigrated to London from Co Sligo. After starting their family, they wanted their seven-year-old son, who was born in 1950, to learn the fiddle so they hooked him up with a classical violin teacher. “She was an old Victorian lady,” Burke remembers. She started him on nursery rhymes and baby tunes.

After about six months, Burke’s father asked her if she could teach him an Irish tune. She was up for it; all she needed was a songbook so he picked up a copy of Allan’s Irish Fiddler. She taught him the first few tunes in the collection. His parents, were a bit mystified though at his lack of progress.