Julia Clifford was a fiddler and Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 traditional musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

.

Julia Murphy was born at Lisheen, Gneeveguilla

Gneeveguilla

Gneeveguilla, officially Gneevegullia , is a small village in the Sliabh Luachra region of South East County Kerry, Ireland. It lies about east of Killarney, close to the County Kerry/County Cork border....

, County Kerry

County Kerry

Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...

, part of an area in west Munster

Munster

Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

 known as Sliabh Luachra

Sliabh Luachra

Sliabh Luachra is a region in Munster, Ireland, located around the River Blackwater, on the County Cork/County Kerry/County Limerick borderland.-Music and literature:...

 one of eight children. Her father Bill played 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...

, fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, and fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 and had a fife and drum band. Both she and her brother Denis Murphy

Denis Murphy (Irish musician)

Denis Murphy was an Irish fiddler and noted traditional musician.Murphy was born in Lisheen, Gneeveguilla, County Kerry one of eight children of Bill and Mainie Murphy. His father played fife, flute and fiddle and had a fife and drum band. It was a house where music was played a lot with...

, also a noted musician, were taught the fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 by noted fiddler from the same area, Padraig O'Keeffe

Padraig O'Keeffe

Padraig O'Keeffe was a noted Irish traditional musician.O'Keeffe was born in Glountane, Castleisland, County Kerry,into a large family where his father was the local national school headmaster. He was reared by his maternal grandparents...

.

Julia moved to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and worked as a maid and in 1941 married 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....

 player John Clifford. She won the All-Ireland fiddle championship at Mullingar

Mullingar

Mullingar is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1542, proclaimed Westmeath a county, separating it from Meath. Mullingar became the administrative centre for County Westmeath...

 in 1963.

Clifford, her brother, O'Keefe, and others from the Sliabh Luachra area are regarded as a significant influence on Irish traditional music

Music of Ireland

Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...

and have given rise to the term Sliabh Luachra style.

Discography

• Kerry Fiddles. Padraig O'Keefe (fiddle), Denis Murphy (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle). Topic TSCD 309, 1994. Reissue of Topic 12T309, 1977. Recorded by Seamus Ennis 9 Sept. 1952 in Castleisland, Co. Kerry.
• Paddy in the Smoke. Martin Byrnes (fiddle), Danny Meehan (fiddle), Bobby Casey (fiddle), Tony McMahon (accordion), Andy Boyle (fiddle), Jimmy Power (fiddle), Jimmy Dunleavy (fiddle), Sean O'Shea (fiddle), Con Curtin (fiddle), Denis McMahon (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle), Tommy Maguire (accordion), Father O'Keeffe (mandolin), Lucy Farr (fiddle), Edmond Murphy (fiddle), with Reg Hall (piano), John McLaughlin (spoons). Topic TSCD 603, 1997. "Re-mastered edition" of Topic 12T176, 1968, with "additional material and new notes." Some material from original LP is missing here. Notes to reissue by Reg Hall.
• The Star above the Garter. Fiddle music from Kerry, played by Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford. Denis Murphy (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle). Claddagh CC5CD, 1969. Recorded in Dublin.
• The Humours of Lisheen, Julia and John Clifford, Topic (LP). Julia Clifford, 1914-97

External links

• RamblingHouse: Julia Clifford, 1914-97
• MadForTrad Ltd.: The Star above the Garter - Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford (Benchmark recording of Sliabh Luachra fiddle music from 1969 by Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford)