Pappy Looney (1915-1997)
Pappy Looney (Patrick O’Looney) was a beloved traditional Irish musician born in Kylemore near Kilfenora in 1915. He passed away on March 26, 1997, at the age of 82.
Pappy began playing the tin whistle at just six years old and was performing in sessions by the age of ten. Despite his small stature, he was known for his boundless energy and passion for music. A versatile musician, he mastered several instruments including the tin whistle, concert flute, melodeon, and concertina. One of his most remarkable skills was playing multiple bass on the concertina.
Famous for his hospitality and love of music, Pappy hosted legendary music sessions—especially during Christmas—that often lasted from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. His home would be completely rearranged to make space for musicians and dancers, creating a vibrant setting for these social gatherings. Musicians took turns playing sets, and Pappy was always at the heart of it all.
Thankfully, recordings of Pappy’s music survive, made between the ages of 75 and 81. These, along with video footage and interviews preserved by collectors, help ensure his musical legacy lives on. He continued playing up until about six months before his passing and was fondly remembered as “the life and soul of many a party and many a soirée.”
Pappy’s son, Gerry O’Looney, and others close to him shared memories that paint a vivid portrait of a man whose love for music left a lasting mark on his community and on Irish traditional music as a whole.
Pappy O'Looney
Pappy O'Looney Mortuary Card
He has a reel named after him that the kilouhery brothers play
https://itmacatalogues.ie/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/50808
Noel O’Donoghue told me he has a recording of him
I have this recording now. Therese gave it to me.
Noel gave Mary Browne a recording of Pappy Looney on it. The wheels of the world 1999. Pt Costello made the recording.
Story from Peter Laban:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?t=28240
Jimmy Hogan learned to play from a cousin who was originally from the Doolin area who had inherited a farm near Moy, which is a townland some three or four miles from where I am writing this.
Jimmy Hogan teamed up with Pappy Looney who was from the Kilfenora area if I am not mistaken and they used to play for house dances around the West Clare area. I have some tapes of their music (each separately), Jimmy’s style is a simple driven style for dancing. One of the houses they often played was that of peter Smith in Fahalunachta, home to my great friend Kitty Hayes. Both Jimmy and Pappy greatly encouraged her learning the concertina during the early 1940s, she still tells proudly how she once played for a dance with them. She gave up playing soon after because her concertina failed her, only to go back with a vengeance after 45 years. I gave her a tape of Jimmy’s playing some two years ago and she was amazed by the fact I had managed to find her one as well a the fact his playing and repertoire hadn’t changed much after 50 years in the States.
One of the stories Kitty has often told me is of one morning when they were supposed to make the hay, her father was out getting the horse ready(she was in her very early teens then) when Jimmy Hogan and Pappy Looney came walking across the field, on the way back from a night playing at a dance. Her father invited them in, they had tea and the flutes came out. Kitty gives a wonderful description of the morning light coming in the door. reflecting off the concertflutes while the music drifted across the fields. Her father got out the concertina. The girls danced a set and no hay was made that day. Their neighbour, a serious farmer, thought they were a bunch of lay-abouts, not making their hay but playing and dancing instead.
