Ronan Browne

Browne's friendship and musical collaboration with Peter O'Loughlin spanned the 40 years from their initial meeting in 1977 to Peter's death on 22 October 2017. Their strong combination of mid-19th century flat-pitch pipes and tuned-down fiddle, playing the old dance music of Ireland, makes for a rare and thoroughly enjoyable evening's entertainment. They recorded 3 albums: 'The South West Wind' (1988), 'Touch Me if You Dare' (2002), and 'The Legacy (2016).

Browne is a member of the group Cran with Seán Corcoran and Desi Wilkinson. Cran has released five CDs and tour worldwide. The core of their repertoire is native Irish material – dance music or slow airs on flute and pipes, and vocals ranging from the highly ornamented sean-nós songs of Conamara to the rollicking port a' bhéil or mouth music of Donegal. Their Hiberno-English song repertoire (songs from Ireland in English) covers the entire gamut from the old story-telling "long ballads" to lively comic songs of "pure divilment and rascality". They also include material from the related Scots-Gaelic tradition and from the other Atlantic Celts, the Bretons.

He appeared on ABC Network's 65 million-audience Good Morning America playing the Uilleann Pipes with Dónal Lunny, Nollaig Casey and Arty McGlynn. He played on the theme music to the six-part series Bringing It All Back Home – an independent television programme dealing with the influence of Irish music on American folk and contemporary music.

Browne has been teaching the pipes, flute and whistle worldwide for the last 25 years and has recently developed a much sought-after music appreciation/listening class. In 2005 an Arts Council DEIS grant enabled him to make his class completely portable and has proved a huge addition to his teaching capabilities.

After releasing the easy-listening album Celtic Moods in 1997, Browne released a solo traditional CD The Wynd You Know in 2001, with Claddagh Records.

Browne's version of the Blasket Island air Port na bPucaí was chosen by Limerick's Daghda dance group for their part in the huge Famine commemoration held in Millstreet in 1997.

Browne was the original piper for the Eurovision interval performance of Riverdance in 1994 and his recording has featured in almost every show since. He chose not to join the teeming cast when the show went on the road, preferring instead to concentrate on his personal projects and to leave the touring to pipers with more time on their hands.

Cran have released five CDs: [The Crooked Stair (1993, reissued 2005); Black Black Black (1998); Lover’s Ghost (2000); Music from the Edge of the World (2002); Dally and Stray (2014)].

In the mid-1990s, Browne was asked if he would like to join a project which was starting up revolving around Peter Gabriel's 2nd "World Music Recording Week". Musicians converged from all over the planet to ramble from project to project being recorded in up 7 recording setups in Real World Studios. Out of this intense meeting of musicians was born the Afro Celt Sound System which went on to become Real World's most successful venture. It was a meeting of African and Irish musicians in the convivial company of some of the top London programmers.

He has been involved in many album recordings since his first venture into the studio in 1982 and has collaborated with many of the top artists playing traditional Irish music, classical, pop, jazz and Country. These include people such as Anúna, Dónal Lunny, Finbar Wright, Alan Stivell, The Indigo Girls, Tommy Hayes, Sean Tyrrell, Bill Whelan, Elvis Costello, Nightnoise, Michael Kamen, Paul Brady, Bill Laswell, Sinéad O'Connor, Peter Gabriel and Deep Forest.

Browne was born in Dublin in 1965 into a musical background. His grandmother, Delia Murphy, wrote, recorded and popularised many Irish songs in the 1930s and 1940s. Musicians such as Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy and Denis Murphy were regular visitors to Browne's family home over the years. He began playing the pipes at the age of seven, his main influences being pipers Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran and Séamus Ennis, and fiddlers Denis Murphy and Tommy Potts.

He composed and recorded scores for the audio-visual displays at the National 1798 Visitor Centre in Enniscorthy, at the Waterford Treasures museum and at King John's Castle in Limerick city.