Jimmy Kelly (1887 – 1970)

Jimmy Kelly was born and raised in Teelin but left at quite a young age to work for the Monaghan family at their quarry in Drumkeelan. In his younger days he played regularly with Mick McShane and Frank Cassidy, and would have been influenced by the playing of the McConnells, the travelling tinsmiths and fiddlers who visited the area in the early 1900s. Like Paddy McDyer and Maurice Quigley, Jimmy played for wedding parties in Carrick before leaving home. He later married Margaret Haughey and they settled Mountcharles. Jimmy was very good with his hands and manufactured a tin fiddle, a skill that he learned, perhaps, from the travelling McConnells.