| Pat Murphy was born in Upperchurch, County Tipperary. His first contact with set dancing was in his own home, where the Ballycommon set and occasionally the Castle set were danced. He learned to play the accordion from his father, Jack, who played locally at house dances for much of his life. Music has been one of the joys of Pat's life since then. |
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| Until around 1980, his main contact with set dancing was as a musician
playing for sets. He sometimes played for competition dancers, set,
céilí and solo step dancers during this time. One night in the early
1980s, he was playing for dancers at a set competition and was asked to
replace an injured dancer in a local set. They won the competition and
Pat was invited to stay in the set. This lead him to a meeting with
dancing teacher Jack Slattery, from Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary.
Set dancing now plays a major part in Pat's life. During the past 20 years he has traveled, taught and danced sets in every part of Ireland. His dance schedule includes week long classes at two of the major traditional summer schools in Ireland, the South Sligo Summer School in Tubbercurry and the Joe Mooney Summer School in Drumshanbo, where he has been teaching for 15 years now. He has also traveled and taught extensively in England and mainland Europe, as well as in Canada and America. In North America he has had the opportunity to teach at some of the major festivals, including the North American Comhaltas Convention and the Milwaukee Irishfest. Outside of dancing, Pat works as a primary school teacher in Ireland. For many years he taught in Clondalkin, Dublin and for the past four years has been living and teaching in Westport, county Mayo. His son John lives in Limerick and his daughter Deirdre and her husband John now live in county Offaly. Pat is delighted that Deirdre is a registered Step Dancing teacher with the Irish Dancing Commission, as is her mother who lives in county Wexford.
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