Traditional music mourns the loss of fiddle virtuoso Paddy Cronin, 88

Traditional Irish music has lost one of its oldest and notable virtuosos with the passing of Paddy Cronin, 88, a pupil of the fabled fiddle master of Sliabh Luachra, Padraig O’Keeffe.

Mr Cronin, who lived in Killarney, was a native of Reaboy, Gneeveguilla, close to the Cork/Kerry border and a stronghold of Irish music. He died at Kerry General Hospital, Tralee, after a short illness.

Having learnt his music from O’Keeffe and coming under the influence of other fiddlers in the area, such as Denis Murphy and Tom Billy Murphy, he emigrated to Boston in 1949.