Influential voice - Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

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.

Too young to be in the vanguard of the 1960s revival, he made a significant contribution to consolidating the new-found acceptance of — and worldwide enthusiasm for — Irish music.