Pat Roche was an Irish musician born and raised in County Clare, Ireland. He brought Irish music, Irish dance, and almost everything Irish to Chicago. Roche organized the first Ceili Band, called the Harp and Shamrock Ceili Band. Another great thing he did was perfect Irish dance. Pat’s school was called Harp and Shamrock School of Traditional Dance. Roche also made Irish dance popular. He emceed and organized his own shows at Century of Progress, the 1934 World’s Fair. Pat even taught Donald O’Connor, from the movie, Singing in the Rain, how to do a hornpipe.

      Pat was like the Michael Flatley of his time. His footwork unlike hard, stomping Riverdance was light and gentlemanly. His students went on and started their own schools. Pat’s children all went on in dance and became famous for it. Pat Roche was very important to Chicago.

      Mr. Roche died at the age of 99 in 2004. We Irish Musicians at the Murphy Roche School of Irish Music cannot thank Pat enough for bringing his love of Irish music to Chicago. We named our club after this great man.