SNIPPET: Johnny DORAN was born in 1909 in Rathnew, Co. Wicklow into a family of professional travelling musicians, a descendant of the legendary 19th century Wicklow piper, John CASH. Taking to the road in the early 1930s and from then until his tragic death at the age of 42, DORAN's pipes could be heard wherever there was a large gathering of people. Although he travelled widely throughout most of Ireland, Co. Clare was to become his favorite - no doubt attracted by the wealth of tradition still alive in the county and the fact that he found a ready and deeply appreciative listening audience for his soulful music. DORAN's piping style was as wild, impassioned and exciting as it was technically brilliant. The uilleann (elbow) or Union Pipes is a complex, elbow-blown instrument comprised of bellows, bag and chanter, drones and regulators (keys set on the drones which provide chordal rhythm accompaniment) played while seated. Only half a century ago this popular instrument looked as if it was in danger of becoming extinct. In Co. Clare the uilleann pipes had become a distant memory. Due to immigration, and following the death in 1900 of the celebrated blind piper Garret BARRY, there were no pipers to be heard - until Johnny DORAN arrived. Johnny's repertoire included a selection of traditional tunes which he had learned at his piper father's knee as a boy in Wicklow. Many musicians referred to such pieces as "travellers tunes" -- "The Blackbird," "Colonel Frazer, "The Fox Hunt," and the haunting air "The Coolin." These tunes were associated with professional travelling musicians such as Johnny and his brother, Felix, (also an accomplished uilleann piper) and the DUNNE brothers from Co. Limerick. In Johnny's rending of such reels as "Rakish Paddy" or "My Love Is In America" he plays the tunes over and over, as if exploring new possibilities in a flurry of both intricately executed legato (open fingering) and staccato (close fingering) runs on the chanter. He apparently never took a drink, refused to play the pipes after the midnight hour and would often go into the fields after dark to play his pipes for the "little people." It was said of him that he was a gentle soul and "you could meet no better." Few pictures of Johnny Doran survive, although one can be found in the July-Aug 2001 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. Taken in Terenure, Co. Dublin in 1941, it shows him outside his horse-drawn caravan with fellow piper, Pat CASH and a young boy, possibly his nephew. Described as a small, intense, good-looking man with dark skin and black hair, Johnny cut an exotic figure wherever he set up to play. According to the renowned fiddler, the late John KELLY, "He looked for all the world like an Indian." Mr. KELLY first encountered Johnny and his piping at a fair in Kilkee in West Clare in the early 1930s and was captivated by this wiry, impish man who was driving the crowd gathered about him wild with excitement. The men remained friends throughout the years and often played together at informal sessions. Had it not been for the foresight of the late West Clare fiddler, Mr. KELLY, then living in Dublin, we may not have had the opportunity to hear and appreciate Johnny's unique piping style and stunning virtuosity. KELLY persuaded Kevin DANAHER of the Irish Folklore Commission to commit Doran's music to tape. On New Year's Day 1948, as Johnny emerged from his caravan, parked overnight by a high wall near Christchurch in Dublin, a fierce storm blew the wall onto the caravan, pinning him underneath. Although he survived his many injuries and travelled with his wife to his home in Wicklow after his hospitalization, his health continued to deteriorate. He died in a hospital in Athy, Co. Kildare on January 19, 1950. Mr. DORAN's precious few recordings are still with us - those "hives of honeyed sound" - which are said to enchant and bewitch the listener with the eloquent, beautiful language of the heart.