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Sad passing of Buncrana fiddle
player
31.01.11
BUNCRANA and the wider
Donegal music world have been saddened by the death
of acclaimed fiddle player and music teacher P.V.
O'Donnell.
Patrick Vincent O'Donnell (Broadway) passed away on
Friday in the hospice unit of Manchester Memorial
Hospital in his adopted US state of Connecticut.
The internet boards lit up this weekend with
tributes to the highly popular musician and
entertainer.
"(P.V.) was at the core of grassroots interest in
Irish traditional music. His list of fiddle students
spanned the ages and his weekly sessions in downtown
Hartford regularly attract a minimum of 25 players
and singers," wrote one fan.
Another said: "Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam uasal. He
was one of the best men I've ever known."
P.V. was born in Buncrana. His father spent a period
in New York (hence the family nickname, 'Broadway')
before returning to open a garage, shop and ballroom
in his native town. The prodigious young P.V. made
his musical debut at just four years old. |
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The late P.V. O'Donnell pictured at
the age of four and in later years. |
After leaving school,
he joined the Northern Ireland civil service and was
posted as a Revenue tax officer in Coleraine, Co
Derry. The pull of the music was too strong however
and he left his day job in the early 1970s to
concentrate solely on a professional music career.
He was instrumental in forming the first Buncrana
branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann. Legendary
self-taught Inishowen fiddle player, the late Pat
Mulhern from Fallask became a friend and mentor. The
young fiddle player visited the elderly master every
week at his rural thatched cottage with the turf
fire.
In the folk and traditional music revival of the
1970s, P.V. joined folk band 'Ten Penny Bit' and
toured extensively in the North. Later he formed
'Barley Bree' and was their lead fiddle player for
many years. With the troubles in the North, the band
emigrated to Canada in 1977.
For the next decade, they travelled across north
America from coast to coast with great success from
their base in Nova Scotia. They released eight
successful albums and fronted a weekly TV series
'Barley Bree' that lasted for a record two years.
Making his life in America, he returned to Ireland
regularly to refresh and swap tunes with
up-and-coming young musicians. He was a popular draw
at the relatively recent Ar Ais Aris festival that
ran for several years in Buncrana. (Biographical
details: Seamus McBride) |
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