The heart of Irish traditional musician Mike Rafferty

"Shortly after midnight on September 13, the heart of Mike Rafferty, the genial Irish musician who held fast to the East Galway musical tradition in which he was reared around Ballinakill, stopped beating.

Coming two weeks shy of his 85th birthday and a year since he was proclaimed a national treasure in Washington, D.C. for sharing that tradition and weaving it into America’s tapestry, the passing suggested that his earthly work was done and he could leave us knowing that he had left his mark with so many who enjoyed his company and his music.

Rafferty’s wake and funeral last Thursday and Friday drew hundreds of mourners to his adopted home of Hasbrouck Heights in New Jersey, and the Church or Corpus Christi was packed on the beautiful sunny September Friday.

Many of the people who attended the Mass continued onto his gravesite in the shadows of the Meadowlands, and afterwards the repast meal offered by the Rafferty family.
"

The heart of Irish traditional musician Mike Rafferty | From The Hob | IrishCentral: