Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh
(born 28 August 1979) is a fiddler, born in Dublin, Ireland, who attended Trinity College Dublin, becoming a scholar in Theoretical Physics (1999) and earning a first-class BA degree (as the top student of his class) in 2001.  He is known for developing a drone-based fiddle style heavily influenced by the uilleann pipes and the music of . 

 spent several summers working part- and full-time in the Irish Traditional Music Archives in Dublin, opening up a wealth of old recordings which influenced his repertoire and style. Together with uilleann piper Mick O'Brien, he recorded Kitty Lie Over, named no.1 traditional album of 2003 by Earle Hitchner in American newspaper the Irish Echo.

He performs regularly with West Kerry accordion player Brendan Begley, and has collaborated many times with  singer . He has also performed with Icelandic group Amiina, and with Sam Amidon, The Waterboys, and others. He is a member of two contemporary traditional music groups: The Gloaming (with Martin Hayes, , Dennis Cahill and Thomas Bartlett); and This Is How We Fly (with Petter Berndalen, Nic Gareiss and Seán Mac Erlaine).  He has also worked in theatre, having been commissioned by the Abbey Theatre to write music, and works regularly with Gare St Lazare Players.  He contributed music to the 2015 film Brooklyn, a set of reels recorded especially for the purpose with Mayo accordion player .

As well as playing on violin and Hardanger fiddle,  plays an instrument made by Norwegian luthier Salve Hakedal, a fiddle with five bowed strings and five sympathetic strings, a cross between a Hardanger fiddle and a five string violin or viola d'amore which he calls a Hardanger d'Amore, first made for American Hardanger fiddle player Dan Trueman, and commissioned by Caoimhín with the head and tailpiece of Salve Hakedal's Viola d’Amore model.   uses crosstunings or scordatura (common in Norwegian and old-time American fiddling), and uses baroque and transitional bows made by Michel Jamonneau.  also used to play a Viola Pellegrina Pomposa by American luthier David Rivinus, a highly asymmetrical five-string viola.  Caoimhín also plays tin whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes, having been taught whistle and flute by Co. Clare flute-player Michael Tubridy of The Chieftains and .

In 2011, he premiered The Valley of the Lunatics, a work written for him by Dave Flynn, at the Masters of Tradition Festival in Bantry. Part of this piece is used in the soundtrack to the film The Enigma of Frank Ryan.

In 2019, he and fellow Gloaming member Thomas Bartlett released a special self-titled album of studio collaborations the pair had recorded together during gaps in the group's touring schedule.

Discography
 (1999, out of print)
Kitty Lie Over (2003, with Mick O'Brien)
Where the One-Eyed Man is King (2007)
Comb Your Hair and Curl It (2010, with  and Catherine McEvoy)
 (2010, with  and Martin Hayes)
A Moment of Madness (2010, with Brendan Begley)
Deadly Buzz (2011, with Mick O'Brien)
 (2012, with  and Martin Hayes)
 (2013, with  and Martin Hayes)
This is How we Fly (2013, with Seán Mac Erlaine, Nic Gareiss and Petter Berndalen)
The Gloaming (2014, on Brassland Records and Realworld Records, with , Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Thomas Bartlett)
Music for an Elliptical Orbit (2014, on Diatribe Records)
Laghdú (2014, on IrishMusic.net Records, with Dan Trueman)
The Gloaming 2 (2016, on Brassland Records and Realworld Records, with , Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Thomas Bartlett)
Foreign Fields (2017, with Seán Mac Erlaine, Nic Gareiss and Petter Berndalen)
All Soundings are True (2017, with Garth Knox, on Diatribe Records)
The Gloaming: Live at the NCH (2018, on Brassland Records and Realworld Records, with , Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Thomas Bartlett)
The Gloaming 3 (2019, on Realworld Records, with , Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Thomas Bartlett)
  and Thomas Bartlett (2019, on Realworld Records, with Thomas Bartlett)

References

External links
 
 Official website -  and Thomas
 

1979 births
Living people
20th-century Irish male musicians
21st-century Irish male musicians
21st-century Irish fiddlers
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
Fiddlers from County Dublin
Irish male fiddlers
Irish folk musicians
People educated at The High School, Dublin
Scholars of Trinity College Dublin
The Gloaming members