
De Dannan (originally Dé Danann) was an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in An Spidéal, County Galway, subsequently inviting Dolores Keane (vocals) to join the band. They named themselves Dé Danann after the legendary Irish tribe, Tuatha Dé Danann. The late fiddler Mickey Finn is also acknowledged to have been a founder member of De Dannan. The group released their eponymous debut album Dé Danann in 1975. Keane left to marry John Faulkner in 1977. (Multi-instrumentalist Faulkner recorded 3 folk albums together with singer Keane.) To fill the vacancy, Dé Danann brought in Johnny Moynihan for the second album Selected Jigs Reels and Songs, which featured a bodhrán solo by McDonagh (this album has never been released on CD, reportedly because the master tapes were lost).