Take a bow, President tells music ambassadors

FOR once The Chieftains sat back and did the listening.

Entertaining audiences worldwide for 40 years with their own brand of traditional music, yesterday President McAleese paid tribute to the band’s unique achievements. Like millions of others, the President is an enthusiastic Chieftains fan who likes nothing better than a rousing seisiún.

But yesterday’s proceedings were more formal and sober as she paid tribute to the world’s best-known ambassadors of traditional Irish music. A sad note was also struck when the group remembered harpist Derek Bell, who died suddenly last October during a tour of the US. Throughout the decades, The Chieftains have mined the wealth of traditional Irish music with a distinctive style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive.