Chieftains awarded with honorary doctorate

Irish group the Chieftains have been awarded with an honorary degree from DIT for their role as cultural ambassadors. The group has been in existence for over 50 years and has performed and recorded with artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, James Galway, Bon Iver and Imelda May.

Paddy Moloney, Sean Keane, Matt Molloy, Kevin Conneff and Triona Marshall were awarded the doctorate in a ceremony at  St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

“It’s wonderful for The Chieftains to be recognised individually as well as collectively with this kind of tribute,” said founder member and uilleann piper Paddy Moloney.

With their mix of irish flute, tin whistle, uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhran, harp and song, the Chieftains have become one of the best-known and best-selling Irish traditional music groups of the past 50 years.