Tag Archives: Ronan Browne

Ronan Browne Visits New Zealand Without Leaving Ireland

On a sunny Saturday morning in March (southern hemisphere Autumn) 2025, Ronan Browne visited and enchanted a gathering of around fifty souls with a message of peace in the Irish language – and a lovely traditional Irish air. Despite the fact that he did not visit physically, but in digital form, Ronan touched the heart’s of all who had gathered at Zuvuyaland, a peaceful nature reserve that is a short distance from the great lake Taupō in the central North Island of New Zealand.

The purpose of this gathering revolved around the Peace Poles at Zuvuyaland. A Peace Pole is a monument that displays the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the language of the country where it has been placed, and usually some additional translations. The message is often called a peace prayer. On this particular day eight new translations in Irish, Bengali, Danish, French, Czech, Greek, Russian and Ukranian were added to the poles. At the gathering were members of the Zuvuyaland society, the local community and twenty members of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run who were visiting Taupō for the weekend.

Ronan had been invited to offer a translation in Irish of “May Peace Prevail on Earth” by the organisers and he kindly recorded a message and a tune for the ceremony. When it was played, it was as though Ronan was standing there among us – it was quite special. And how lovely it was to hear him playing the traditional Irish air Bonny Portmore on his Martin Doyle flute.

So we are very grateful to Ronan for his efforts and to his friends who helped with the translation. It is sometimes difficult to exactly translate an English phrase into some languages. The Irish words for May Peace Prevail on Earth, Síocháin do Chách, Anois is go Brách, translates back to English as “Peace to All, Now and Forever” – an equally fitting phrase to the original.

We invite you to enjoy this precious moment that was captured on video.

Zuvuyaland is also a member of the Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms programme that was founded by the spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy.

Since 1986, many significant landmarks around the globe – from natural wonders to entire nations – have been dedicated to peace as part of the Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms programme. The Peace-Blossoms family offers an opportunity for different communities to share in mankind’s common quest for peace.

“What does peace do? Peace blossoms. What else? Peace spreads. What else? Peace illumines. What else? Peace fulfils.” – Sri Chinmoy.

Article offered by Shardul.

Ronan Browne playing a Martin Doyle Flute

We just came across a video clip of our dear friend Ronan Browne playing his Martin Doyle flute. The tune, which Ronan describes as “beautiful, sad, haunting song [that] was sung by my grandmother Delia Murphy“, is Cold Blows the Wind O’er My True Love and the video was recorded in the covered dry dock in Shannon Harbour by Justin Conneely.

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Two Great Men Came A’visitin

Asides from making great flutes and music, one of Martin Doyle‘s favourite pastimes is photography. Currently a little house-bound and in the arduous process of recovering from open-heart surgery, Martin has had regular visits from well-wishers and friends who come to offer their goodwill and encouragement. So what better way to celebrate a visit from great friends than to photograph them. Here is the result of one such a moment …

Christy Barry and Ronan Browne – photo taken by Martin Doyle

Christy Barry and Ronan Browne – photo taken by Martin Doyle.

A lovely moment between two good soul’s frozen in time by the click of the photographer’s shutter. Here are Martin’s comments regarding this portrait …

I am very proud to have got this picture, its probably one of the best I have ever taken. I would like to say this was a very special day in my recovery, to be in the company of two old friends who are great and authentic Gentlemen.

Some Music From Christy Barry And Ronan Browne

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Humour: Our Only Saviour!

As our huge posse of true believers already fully know, most if not all of our posts are really, really serious – really! But this one is just for a wee chuckle, a throw away article as it were, and will certainly appeal to those among the thousands of people who pour through our really, really serious in-depth articles each day who are musicians. Are you with us so far – or still? Good, we shall continue then …

Our good and dear and recently one-year-older friend Ronan Browne, sent us a humorous little piece of cartoonery that has probably been floating around on the internet for centuries, but because we have never seen it before, to us it is completely new and well worth sharing. Perhaps Ronan thought that the boss needed a laugh after his recent really, really serious surgery, which is very kind of Ronan. I mean, a week after major controlled-death surgery, who wouldn’t want a good side-splitting laugh, right? Right!

Right so, here it is then … this is it … ready? …

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Happy Birthday Ronan Browne!

Ronan BrowneOn behalf of Martin Doyle, who is a little incapacitated at the moment due to being in hospital for surgery, we at Martin Doyle Flutes would like to offer our dear friend Ronan Browne a very happy birthday!

The Doyle/Browne friendship goes back many years and they have always supported and encouraged each others endeavours. We have no idea what age Ronan is, but he seems at once ancient and ever youthful – a reflection of the man’s timeless soul perhaps, and his ever present sense of humour.

For the two or three people in the audience who don’t know him, Ronan Browne is an Irish musician and composer whose primary instrument is the uilleann pipes. He also sings and plays a raft of instruments including flutes. A lot can be gleaned about musicians from the music that they create. Have a listen to the following piece, entitled Critical Mass, that Ronan produced some years back …

And here’s a video clip of Ronan performing with Martin Doyle and others at a traditional music day during the 2008 Drogheda Arts Festival

Thank you Ronan – your life and activities add a lovely hue to this world.

A Break, A Birthday, Some Tunes

A BREAK

Martin Doyle will be unavailable for a few weeks from Sunday August 05 as he is going to hospital for an operation. Apologies for any inconvenience.

A BIRTHDAY

Martin DoyleSunday August 05 also happens to be Martin’s birthday – he has seen 67 summers and looks 50! Happy birthday and congratulations Martin! Thank you for the many good and great qualities that you offer to the world through what you do and who you are.

“When people play music, they offer people flowers. When people make flutes, they offer people seeds.” – Martin Doyle.

SOME TUNES

And what’s a birthday without some music? The following tune is called ‘King Of The Blind’ – a Turlough O’Carolan composition that featured in Nicholas Carolan’s facsimile edition of John & William Neal, A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes proper for the violin, German flute or hautboy that was first published in 1724. For this piece Martin Doyle is playing one of his own baroque flutes.


For more samples of musicians playing Martin Doyle’s flutes, kindly visit this page: Flute Music »

Here is a lovely rendition of King of the Blind played on harp by Ann Heymann – the instrument that Turlough O’Carolan played during his lifetime.

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Martin Doyle Interviewed on The West Wind

The Willie Clancy Summer School
The Willie Clancy Summer School, Milltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland.

July in Ireland means many things to many people, no doubt. It’s mid-summer for one thing and the sun brings welcome warmth to the land, so there must be some joy in most hearts. For the Irish traditional music fraternity though, July means only one thing: the annual Willie Clancy Summer School which is held in Milltown Malbay, County Clare.

For a week or so each July, the small coastal town near Spanish Point is swamped with music teachers, students, aficionados and keen lovers of the great Irish music tradition for master classes, music sessions, concerts and all that comes with such activities. Milltown Malbay is synonymous with the famed Clare musician Willie Clancy (1918—1973) who was a great exponent of the uilleann pipes specifically and Irish traditional music in general.

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