World Fiddle Day in Kerry village of Scartaglin pays tribute to Sliabh Luachra master Pádraig O’Keeffe

ONCE a year, fiddle players old and young cluster around the statue of Sliabh Luachra master Pádraig O’Keeffe in the Kerry village of Scartaglin.

A sea of bows, rising and falling in waves, they fill the air with polkas and slides, hornpipes and jigs, under the stony gaze of a man whose influence on the area’s distinctive musical style is undiminished more than half a century after his death.

As the tunes of O’Keeffe flow through the fingers of participants at this year’s World Fiddle Day on May 21, those musicians are playing their part in the living tradition of Irish music, passing it from one generation to the next.