Darach O'Cathain

Who was Darach O'Cathain?

Darach Ó Catháin was an Irish sean-nós singer. Ó Catháin was born in Maimin, Lettermore, Connemara seventh in a family of twelve children, in 1922. In 1935 his family moved to new government created Gaeltacht of Rath Cairn, Co. Meath. His love of singing and many of his songs were learned from his mother. By the late 1950s he was established as one of the finest sean-nós singers in the country. In the early 60s Seán Ó Riada had begun to broadcast a series of radio programmes, Reacaireacht an Riadaigh, on RTÉ Radio 1. These programmes were to transform the traditional music. Darach Ó Catháin was the singer in those programmes. In 1962 a commercial recording was issued. Out of all of this came Ceoltoiri Cualann and eventually The Chieftains. But in the meantime, Darach disappeared. Darach fell in love and married when he was 19.

While he was performing with O Riada he was also working as a labourer on the building sites of London and the north of England. By 1963 he'd become convinced his family's future was in Leeds. In that year his wife, Brid, sold the family home and moved to Yorkshire.