Paddy Taylor (1912-1976) was a traditional Irish flautist from West Limerick. Taylor was born at Loughill in West Limerick. His father was a good singer and, although not a player himself, he knew hundreds of local dance tunes with which he would prompt Honora, Paddy’s mother, herself a well-known anglo-concertina player. Her father was Pay Hanley, locally famous as a flute player, but proficient on many other instruments. Paddy was encouraged by his grandfather and also by his two cousins, Mike and Mortimer Taylor, who also played flute. The family moved to London in the early fifties, and settled in Chiswick. Paddy started the Tara Club above Burtons in Hammersmith Broadway, and played in Frank Lee’s Tara Band as well as in The Garryowen Band just before the Second World War. He took part in a number of broadcasts with many well-known Irish pipers and fiddlers, and played regularly for Irish dancing in London. After the war he joined Mole Richardson, a firm of television lighting engineers, with whom he worked for twenty years. Taylor died in December 1976.
