Christy Moore on Liam O'Flynn: 'He changed our lives. Liam's musi

Yesterday, we learned of the sad passing of Planxty founder and acclaimed uillean piper, Liam Óg O’Flynn. Last night, Arena paid tribute to him with a special programme featuring a panel made up of Liam’s friends and musical colleagues Rita Connolly, Christy Moore, Shaun Davey, Gay McKeon, Neil Martin, Philip King and Dónal Lunny.

Sean Rocks began the programme by playing Liam’s rendition of “Táimse Im’ Chodladh”, saying “tá sé ina chodladh anois”. Sean promised that the programme was going to “celebrate the joy, the multitudes of joy, that Liam O’Flynn has given over the years”.

Rita Connolly said that Liam definitely lived up to his nickname, “The Gentleman Piper”, welcoming her, “a Dub”, into traditional music circles.

“He was so welcoming and was always a gentleman to me. We had lovely times. We had hilarious times. He was just wonderful. He was a wonderful man.”

Christy Moore told Sean that he was “finding it hard to talk” after hearing “Táimse Im ‘Chodladh”. He explained that he was with Liam when he recorded it. It’s been his “favourite piece of music for 36 years now”. He described the impact Liam had had on his life.

“Dónal Lunny and I were very fortunate. The first uillean piper we ever heard was Liam O’Flynn. And he was in and around the same age as ourselves but to hear him playing and not having been familiar with the instrument before that, it just opened our ears up. And some years later on then, when we were going to do some recording, I contacted Dónal and contacted Liam and he came on board. He changed our lives, Liam’s music changed our lives very much.”

You can watch the whole programme below or listen back to the full audio of the programme by clicking here.