One of the country's most famous set dancers Timmy McCarthy, widely known as Timmy "The Brit", has died in Cork aged 73.
Timmy "The Brit", who was also a traditional musician, taught set dancing all over Ireland, Europe, North America and in such far-flung places as China. Indeed, he's famous in China for having danced on the Great Wall.
He is credited with the revival of some set dances that had been forgotten by local people in parts of Munster.
Born in London to parents from Cork, his parents died when he was nine years old and he was put into the care of nuns in London.
When he came to Cork in the 1960s, his English accent earned him the sobriquet Timmy "The Brit".
He, along with other musicians that played in famous Cork bar The Gables, founded the Cork Folk Festival in 1979.
He learned his set dancing skills in Dan O'Connell's bar in Knocknagree in northwest Cork, where the polka music of Sliabh Luachra drove the rhythm of the dances synonymous with the locality.
Timmy "The Brit" was also the subject of an RTÉ radio documentary in 2008.
