Biography:Daniel Kelleher via Patrick Reidy

DANIEL KELLEHER. Source of tunes in the P.D. Reidy music manuscript collection, London, 1890’s. ”Professor” Patrick Reidy of Castleisland was a dancing master engaged by the Gaelic League in London to teach dance classes. He introduced “Siege of Ennis” and “Walls of Limerick” ceili dances and wrote a treatise on dancing. Reidy's source, Daniel Kelleher, was variously said to have been from Castleisland, Sliabh Luachra region, County Kerry, or from the native-Irish speaking region of Achadh Bolg, Múscraigh, in County Cork. Reg Hall (2017) also found a reference to Kelleher as one of the soloists who accompanied step dancing exhibitions at Gaelic League events in London between 1897 and 1901. According to Hall, Kelleher was a young fiddle player active within the Gaelic League. His name is attached to thirteen tunes in Reidy’s collection.