Biography:Tom Billy Murphy
Tom Billy Murphy
| |
---|---|
Given name: | Tom Billy |
Middle name: | |
Family name: | Murphy |
Place of birth: | Glencollins Upper, Ballydesmond |
Place of death: | Glencollins Upper, Ballydesmond |
Year of birth: | 1879 |
Year of death: | 1944 |
Profile: | Composer, Musician |
Source of information: | |
Biographical notes
TOM BILLY MURPHY (c. 1875-1944) was a blind fiddler who was born and died at Glencollins Upper, Ballydesmond in the Sliabh Luachra region, of the County Cork/Kerry border. Murphy, like his younger contemporary and sometimes rival Pádraig O'Keeffe (1887-1963), was a fiddle teacher and mentor to many area musicians in the first half of the 20th century. He learned many of his tunes from a traveling fiddle player named Taidhgin an Asail (Tadhg O Buachalla or Tadeen the Fiddler), who was also sight-impaired. Murphy was a peripatetic (though not homeless) individual who traveled throughout the region on his donkey, who, as the story goes, knew without guidance exactly which houses to go to for a welcome.