The Chieftains

Fact Sheet

Country	Ireland
Years active	1962-

The Chieftains is an Irish musical group founded in 1962, known for performing and popularizing Irish traditional music. The band has recorded many albums of instrumental Irish folk music, as well as multiple collaborations with popular musicians of many genres, including Country music, Galician traditional music, Cape Breton music, and rock and roll. They have performed with Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Tom Jones, Sinéad O'Connor, James Galway, and numerous Country-western artists. In 1975, the group won an Academy Award for Women of Ireland from Stanley Kubrick's movie Barry Lyndon.

They have won six Grammy Awards and have been nominated eighteen times. In 2002 they were given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the UK's BBC Radio 2.

While the band's members have changed numerous times in the band's history, the following musicians comprise the core membership:

Derek Bell (Irish harp, keyboard instruments, oboe)
Kevin Conneff (bodhrán, vocals)
Martin Fay (fiddle, bones)
Seán Keane (fiddle, tin whistle)
Peadar Mercier (bodhrán, bones)
Matt Molloy (flute, tin whistle)
Paddy Moloney (uilleann pipes, tin whistle, button accordion, bodhrán)
Seán Potts (tin whistle, bones, bodhrán)
Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, and tin whistle);

Moloney is currently the band's leader, and composes much of the music not taken directly from traditional sources.

Kevin Conneff replaced Peadar Mercier in 1976. Derek Bell passed away on October 17, 2002.

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