If a culture is to grow, if a musical tradition is to be as robust and as enduring as it might be, it needs active champions in the greater community and in academia. Pianist, composer and teacher Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, who died after a long illness yesterday aged 67, was both.

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Tributes have poured in for world-famous Munster musician and composer, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, who passes away in Limerick “after a prolonged illness”, his family said.

I’ve always been excited by musical sounds. My earliest memory is playing a little toy piano with the black keys painted on.

One of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, will perform for one night, October 3, at The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, in the US, in commemoration of the works of Cork-born Captain Francis O’Neill.