Dan Milner was a singer of traditional Irish songs, a scholar-teacher and a writer. He died on September 27, 2023. Born Daniel Michael Milner on March 27, 1945 in Birmingham, England to an Irish mother, Nora Mary Cremin of Brosna, County Kerry, and an Irish-English father, Willam Milner, he was the younger brother of Liam Donal Padraig Milner (1940-2008), who was also a fine singer. The Milner family moved frequently following World War II, the result being the brothers grew up in far-flung localities including Birmingham; Ballybunion, County Kerry; Toronto, Canada and Brooklyn, New York.
Both parents were musical; his mother, a keen set dancer, and his father, a good singer who also played piano. William Milner taught his sons to sing a broad range of Irish national songs, a musical melange including Fenian and Republican pieces like “Skibbereen,” "McCaffrey" and "Kevin Barry," traditional ballads including “Barbara Allen,” and musical hall songs such as "The Wild Rover.” Together, Liam and Dan learned these plus Thomas Moore songs and a few Irish-American lyrics from Tin Pan Alley.
