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A fighter, a musician, a businesswoman, a lovable rogue, a leader of the late-night sessions, Lahinch woman Susan O’Sullivan was a one of a kind. Born in Bartrá, just outside Lahinch, in 1892, Susan took up the fiddle when she was eight years old. As well as being a talented player in her own right, her house became the main Sunday evening venue for some of the greats of the Clare trad scene, including Willie Clancy, Seamus Ennis and Junior Crehan. Later in life, she was also a great advocate of passing on the tradition to the young, and served as president of Clare Comhaltas in the 1960s. But in her younger days, in the heat of the War of Independence, Susan lent her considerable intelligence and skill to the Republican cause, and it was this involvement that led to her family home in Lahinch being burned by the Black and Tans in the wake of the Rineen Ambush in …
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