The founder of The Chieftains and pioneering traditional musician, Paddy Moloney (83), was described as a person who had a profound devotion to St Kevin’s Church and someone who “loved to come to worship frequently with recently deceased parish priest Fr Oliver Crotty,” by Fr Eamonn Crossan, speaking during Mr Maloney’s Requiem Mass.
Reflecting on the musician’s remarkable career, which included opening for St Pope John Paul II during his historic Papal visit in 1979, Fr Crossan recalled the inveterate talents of a prodigious young boy from Donnycarney. “[He] was able to listen, he was able to hear the sound of music even as a young boy – it was ringing in his ears as he began to learn the plastic whistle”.
The son of a clerksman in Donnycarney Church and an alumnus of Scoil Mhuire Marino, Mr Maloney’s unremitting love for the whistle has been highly publicised throughout his career and it was a love that blossomed with the assistance of a Christian Brother in Scoil Mhuire, Br McCaffrey.
Speaking in interviews before his death, Mr Maloney recalled how important music was in Br McCaffrey’s classes. “I loved the hour of music every day in school. The tonic sol-fa was the scales system I used, same as the Chinese. I’d often get up and conduct the school band and because I knew the tonic sol-fa Brother McCaffrey would always have me up demonstrating on the days the school inspector came in. I think it’s because he didn’t know how to do it himself!,” he said.