Biography
Willie Clancy earned lasting recognition as a virtuoso of the uillean pipes whose performances wove together reels, slow airs, slip jigs, and mazurkas in distinctive combinations. From 1957 through 1972 he appeared regularly at the seasonal Irish music gatherings held in his birthplace of Miltown Malbay, where he shared sets with Christy Moore, Paul Brady, and Paddy Moloney, the last of whom would later join the Chieftains.
Son of a father who played flute and concertina, Clancy grew up immersed in the repertoire of blind piper Garret Barry (1847-1900). At five he took up the tin whistle, an interest that intensified after he heard Johnny Doran play at a nearby racetrack. Doran agreed to give lessons, and Clancy progressed swiftly. In 1938 he obtained a practice set; nine years afterward he captured first prize in the piping contest at the Oireachtas. Although he entered the Tulla Ceili Band in 1947, the association proved short-lived.
He moved for a time to Dublin in the early 1950s and became active in the circle that gathered at John Potts’s house. From there he traveled to England, where he worked as a carpenter and performed with fellow expatriates Bobby Casey, Seamus Ennis, and Mairtin Byrnes. After his father’s death in 1957 he returned promptly to Miltown Malbay and stayed until January 1973, when he died in a Galway hospital. In tribute, an annual summer music school was later established in the village.
Son of a father who played flute and concertina, Clancy grew up immersed in the repertoire of blind piper Garret Barry (1847-1900). At five he took up the tin whistle, an interest that intensified after he heard Johnny Doran play at a nearby racetrack. Doran agreed to give lessons, and Clancy progressed swiftly. In 1938 he obtained a practice set; nine years afterward he captured first prize in the piping contest at the Oireachtas. Although he entered the Tulla Ceili Band in 1947, the association proved short-lived.
He moved for a time to Dublin in the early 1950s and became active in the circle that gathered at John Potts’s house. From there he traveled to England, where he worked as a carpenter and performed with fellow expatriates Bobby Casey, Seamus Ennis, and Mairtin Byrnes. After his father’s death in 1957 he returned promptly to Miltown Malbay and stayed until January 1973, when he died in a Galway hospital. In tribute, an annual summer music school was later established in the village.
Albums
