A flute player from west Cork, he rose to become Chicago’s chief of police and gathered tunes from the city’s Irish musicians and from print. His O’Neill’s Music of Ireland of 1903 held 1,850 pieces, and The Dance Music of Ireland followed in 1907. His biographer Nicholas Carolan judged him the greatest single influence on Irish dance music in the twentieth century.
Francis O’Neill
Collector of Irish dance music; Chicago police chief
- Born
- 28 August 1848, Tralibane, County Cork
- Died
- 26 January 1936, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Further reading: Wikipedia · Dictionary of Irish Biography
