Bobby Casey

Miltown Malbay, County Clare
Fiddle

Bobby Casey was born at the Crosses of Annagh near Miltown Malbay, Co Clare in 1926. His father John 'Scully' Casey, who died when Bobby was 15, was a well-known fiddler as well as being a flute and concertina player.
Scully gave lessons to Junior Crehan, as did Scully's cousin, the noted dance master Thady Casey. Bobby in turn learned much of his playing from Junior Crehan and the two remained lifelong friends. Bobby was also influenced by the playing of Michael Coleman, Michael Gorman and Frank O'Higgins.
Along with Willie Clancy he went to Dublin about 1950 where he met, among others, John Kelly and the Potts family. 


He moved to London in 1952 and was a regular at the Sunday morning sessions in the Favourite and Bedford Arms pubs which became rallying points for Irish musicians and rural emigrants in the Sixties.

"A musician's musician," is how the late Muiris O Rochain of the Willie Clancy Summer School described him. Bobby had an easygoing and likeable personality and his style was described as gentle, "with an exceptional flair for variation".

With Seamus Ennis, he performed at the first Willie Clancy Summer School in 1973 and returned frequently to Miltown Malbay to give classes, noted for their informal style. In later years he moved from London to live in Northampton. Bobby Casey Died on May 13, 2000, and is buried in his native county Clare.

Bobby Casey