Their first album, ceol aduaidh 'Music of the North', 1983 , is considered to be one of the most influential Irish traditional music albums of the period.
He was cracking jokes about his condition.
Fear ceolmhar, fear séimh, fear uasal.
Matt Molloy, the flute player of the Chieftains, played a slow air during the Mass beforehand and Altan, the band he guided and helped to create, played his own reel 'Harvest Storm' in tribute.