Sonny Brogan
Irish musician (1907–1965)
Patrick Joseph "Sonny" Brogan (4 July 1906 – 1 January 1965) was an Irish accordion player from the 1930s to the 1960s, and was one of Ireland's most popular traditional musicians. He was one of the earliest advocates of the two-row B/C button accordion in traditional music, and popularised it the 1950s and 60s. He originally played on a single-keyed Hohner melodeon, and later the two-row Paolo Soprani (pictured) which he used until he died. Sonny's Paolo Soprani was one of the rarest, the grey model, made in 1948, when the company still made them by hand. Offaly-born button box player Paddy O'Brien currently has Sonny's accordion.
Background
Sonny Brogan was born in Dublin, the eldest of three children born to Alicia Brown and Andrew Brogan. On a holiday trip to Kildare as a young boy, he first heard Irish music played on the accordion by his great uncle, Thomas Cleary. His mother, when opening luggage on returning home, found a melodeon hidden there by Sonny who had taken a fancy to it. He was allowed to keep the instrument and taught himself to play it.
Growing up, he attended music classes for piano, and learned how to read basic music notation.
The public source identifies “Sonny Brogan” as irish musician (1907–1965). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sonny, Brogan and Irish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3490634. VIAF identifies the subject as 315674051. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1965 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sonny Brogan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.