Sean O Riada (1931-1971) was a major factor in the rise of Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century. He is one of Ireland's most fascinating and significant characters--composer, musician (jazz, classical, and traditional), director of music for the Abbey Theatre, raconteur, film-maker, and academic--and the man most influential in changing the direction, and popularity, of traditional music that set the stage for the success of bands like The Chieftains and Planxty. In this wide-ranging account of his life and work a friend and colleague looks behind the mask O Riada held up to the world and reveals the complex personality of a unique individual, the first composer of modern Ireland.