By the way, Paddy denies that The Chieftains originated out of Ceoltoiri Chualann. He claims that he and Sean O Riada were like-minded from the start, that they had similar ideas, and that to say the Chieftains came from O Riada's group gave O Riada all the credit for ideas that were partly Paddy's. He says he started the Chieftains while Ceoltoiri Chualann still existed, and it was his idea...the resemblance to O Riada's group was simply because he and O Riada had had similar ideas from the get-go, and because he imported Martin from O Riada's group.

I only say this because Paddy took me to task for making the same suggestion during an interview I did with him. (I still kind of agree with you, though.)

Paddy also took me to task for espousing an idea of Tomas O Canainn's. He started to harrumph about the 40s and 50s, when he was a youngster coming up in the piping world. "Where was O Canainn?" he blustered. "I never heard TELL of him!"

A great fellow, Paddy...but forceful in telling you his opinions!