Kitty Smith Hayes (1928 – 17 May 2008) was a well-known concertina-player in Shanaway,

Milltown Malbay Milltown Malbay (), also Miltown Malbay, is a town in the west of County Clare, Ireland, near Spanish Point, County Clare, Spanish Point. The population was 921 at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census. Name There is a townland on the souther ...

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

, Ireland. She came from a musical family, played music as a young woman, and married a musician; but she only found her own fame as a musician in her seventies.

Biography

Hayes was born in the townland of Fahanlunaghta, close to Lahinch. She was the daughter of Peter Smith, a locally well-known concertina player. Hayes started playing at a young age, attracted to the music played by her father. When she mastered the basics, Peter Smith bought her her own concertina. She started playing at local dances.Wallis, Geoff
A Touch of Clare: Traditional Irish Concertina Music
''Musical Traditions,'' accessed 3 January 2017. On one these local dances she met

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

player Josie Hayes, who played in the Laichtín Naofa Céilí Band. They married in 1948 and had seven children; she rarely performed while she was raising her family and caring for her father and husband in their last years. After Josie Hayes died in 1992, one of her sons encouraged her to return to her concertina. Hayes often played at Gleeson's Pub in Coore. She recorded two albums, the first recorded in the kitchen of her daughter Angela Connaughton. Hayes died at home in 2008, at about eighty years old.

CDs

* ''Kitty Hayes: A touch of Clare'' * ''Kitty Hayes and Peter Laban: They'll be good yet''

Compilations

* ''Around the Hills of Clare'' * ''Keepers of Tradition Concertina players of County Clare''

Tribute

* ''Kitty Hayes Remembered'' allcelticmusic.com -Kitty Hayes Remembered
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References

External links

* Musicians from County Clare Concertina players 1920s births Date of birth missing 2008 deaths Place of death missing People from Lahinch People from Milltown Malbay 20th-century Irish women musicians {{Ireland-musician-stub