Frankie Kennedy

Kennedy grew up in Belfast and came to traditional music at eighteen through bands such as Planxty and the Chieftains. On a trip to the Donegal Gaeltacht he met the fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, whom he married in 1981, and together they founded Altan. He died of cancer at thirty eight, and a winter school in Gaoth Dobhair has celebrated his music every year since.