[citation needed] Paddy Moloney was a member of Ceoltóirí Chualann, a group of musicians who specialised in instrumentals and sought to form a new band.

[5][6] The group continued to release successful records throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and their work with Van Morrison in 1988 resulted in the critically acclaimed album Irish Heartbeat.

[7] They went on to collaborate with many other well-known musicians and singers; among them Luciano Pavarotti, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Sinéad O'Connor, Roger Daltrey, and Van Morrison.

The album, Voice of Ages, was produced by T Bone Burnett and featured the Chieftains collaborating with many musicians including Bon Iver, Paolo Nutini and The Decemberists.

It also included a collaboration with NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman playing the flute aboard the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth.

They have won an Emmy and a Genie and contributed tracks, including their highly praised version of the song Women of Ireland, to Leonard Rosenman's Oscar-winning score for Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon.

This de facto role was officially recognised by the Irish government in 1989 when it awarded the group the honorary title of Ireland's Musical Ambassadors.

[18] They played in a concert for Pope John Paul II, before an audience of more than one million people in 1979 in Phoenix Park in Dublin, to mark the Papal visit to Ireland.

[18] In 2011, they performed at a concert in Dublin attended by President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain during her first-ever official trip to the Republic of Ireland.

[24] On 14 April 2023, they reunited for one last time to play for president Joe Biden who was visiting his ancestral home of Ballina, County Mayo in a historical tour of the Island.