top of page
The Gray & Moore Manuscripts
Robbie & Davy Gray
Robbie and Davy Gray were two fiddle playing brothers who were raised in Ballynahinch and played regularly together for 60 years.
Robbie (1909 - 1991) married and lived in Ballynahinch throughout his life where he worked as a cobbler, the same trade as his maternal grandfather William Shields.
Following the death of their mother, Davy (1917 - 1990) went to live with Tommy McCormack's family at the Burren, a few miles west of Ballynahinch on the road to Dromore. He lived there for the remainder of his life. He worked on the roads carrying out maintenance and took pleasure cutting men's hair in the evenings.
John Rooney (piano accordion), Robbie & Davy Gray (fiddles) & Stanley Carson (button accordion), at the Annahilt Official Unionist annual meeting, c.1982.
Robbie Gray
Davy Gray
Jim Moore
Jim Moore (1921 - 2018) lived all his life in Dromara working as a lorry driver and van driver. He initially learned the fiddle from Sammy Thompson. Other influences on his playing were Robbie Chambers of Finnis, who called regularly to the family home, and Robbie & Davy Gray of Ballynahinch and the Burren.
Jim Moore playing a few tunes at Davy Gray's house at the Burren, c. 1983.
Jim Moore
Part 1
Jim Moore
Part 2
bottom of page