Liam O’Flynn / Ó Floinn (1945–2018), internationally renowned virtuoso uilleann piper and whistle player, was a native of Cill, Co. Kildare. He was long known as Liam Óg, having been named after his fiddle player father Liam, headmaster of Cill national school. With family and musical connections to Tralee, Co. Kerry, and to Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, Liam was recognised early on as a more than talented piper. He took lessons from Leo Rowsome in Dublin, and later played with and was influenced by Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis. But in time, he developed his own highly individual rock-steady, perfectly pitched style of mixed open and tight piping — piping expressed in solidly rhythmic dance tunes and in sweeping airs. Never losing contact with his traditional roots, he began a long series of music collaborations in 1972 with Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, and Andy Irvine, as members of the innovative group Planxty. Through Planxty, Liam’s piping came to international as well as national attention, and brought a whole generation to uilleann piping. In the 1980s, he embarked as a solo piper with orchestral accompaniment on an original series of compositions by Shaun Davey, the best known being The Brendan Voyage. In the late 1990s, he formed his band The Piper’s Call; together they made one of his many recordings on the Tara label. He played on numerous film scores, and worked with experimental composers such as John Cage, popular singers such as Kate Bush, and fellow traditional musicians such as fiddle player Paddy Glackin. With the poet Seamus Heaney, he developed The Poet and the Piper, an occasional and much admired stage performance. In 2007, Liam was awarded the TG4 ‘Ceoltóir na Bliana’ Gradam Ceoil. He also served on the ITMA Board.