(b Castleisland, Co. Kerry, 8 Oct 1887; d Tralee, Co. Kerry, 22 Feb 1963). Irish traditional fiddle player and music teacher. Born in Sliabh Luachra, an area comprising parts of Kerry and Cork noted for its traditional culture, he showed early musical promise and learnt from his mother and his uncles. He trained as a primary teacher in Dublin before briefly assuming his father's former position as the local school teacher. From 1920 he was a highly influential travelling music teacher in Sliabh Luachra, walking long distances daily from his home base. He taught mainly the fiddle and the accordion and frequently played for both listeners and dancers. After teaching tunes orally, he usually gave his pupils notations in tablature for both instruments as aides-mémoires, and changes in the music repertory of his district can be traced in surviving notations. He introduced tunes from a variety of printed sources and commercial sound recordings and developed his own versions of traditional melodies. He preferred to play slow airs rather than the characteristic polkas and slides of Sliabh Luachra. O'Keeffe's vivid personality and wit, his position as an entertainer in the local community and his rakish way of life made him a figure of folklore, and his musical influence continues through the playing of his pupils and his recordings. Some of his large repertory was recorded for the archives of the Irish Folklore Commission and by Radio Éireann and the BBC.
and other resources
A. Ward: Music from Sliabh Luachra: an Introduction to the Traditional Music of the Cork/Kerry Borderland (London, 1976)
Kerry Fiddles, Topic LP 12T309 (1977); reissued as Ossian CD OSS 10 (1993)
The Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Master Pádraig O'Keeffe, RTÉ 174 CD (1993)
D. Hanafin: Pádraig O'Keeffe: the Man and his Music (Castleisland, 1996)
NICHOLAS CAROLAN