Eddie Duffy was a traditional Irish musician. He was renowned for his slow airs on the flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, which he accomplished by playing in exactly the same style as he sang, with memorable effect. Many of his songs and tunes came from his mother who played the accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

.

In his youth he was hired at the Derrygonnelly

Derrygonnelly

Derrygonnelly is a small village and townland in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Near Lower Lough Erne, the village was home to 594 people and dates to the Plantation era....

 Fair by a farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

 who played the flute, it was from this farmer, Eddie learned to play the instrument. Duffy played in the 1930s and 1940s with local Céilí bands, the Sillees and the Knockmore

Knockmore

Knockmore is an upland area and townland situated in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is situated outside the village of Derrygonnelly, in the historical barony of Magheraboy. This area, together with most of the adjacent Boho parish is described as the Knockmore Scarplands...

. His name is now internationally known since he passed on many tunes and songs to Cathal MacConnell of the group The Boys of the Lough

The Boys of the Lough

-The early years:Their first album, called Boys of the Lough consisted of Aly Bain , Cathal Mc'Connell , Dick Gaughan and Robin Morton ....

.