John Doherty (musician)

firstly by Professor Alun Evans, and subsequently by researcher Caomhín Mac Aoidh, allowing confirmation that his date of birth was 1900, rather than 1895, which has been recorded in error in several publications.

In an interview in the 1970s, he said that he had to practice in the barn as a teenager, and was not allowed to play fiddle in the company of his parents until he had mastered "Bonny Kate".

He played with much ornamentation, including bowed and slurred triplets, rolls, 'cuts', mordents (particularly on long 'first-finger' notes), double-stopping (based on standard western music principles, normally highlighting the tonic and third of a particular chord).

Heavily influenced by the Scottish bagpiping tradition, he often replicated the sound of the pipes' drones, by either re-tuning the fiddle to an open tuning ('scordatura'), or by maintaining the fourth finger on the string below the pitch of the melody.

According to Alex Monaghan in the magazine, "The Living Tradition", he was a significant influence on the fiddle playing of The Chieftains and Altan.

He was first recorded in 1945 by The Irish Folklore Commission during one of his trips to Teelin in Southwest Donegal and later by the BBC (Peter Kennedy) in Belfast in 1953.