 Her father Bill played flute, fife, and fiddle and had a fife and drum band.Both she and her brother Denis Murphy, also a musician, were taught the fiddle by noted fiddler from the same area, Padraig O'Keeffe.Clifford, her brother, O'Keefe, and others from the Sliabh Luachra area are regarded as a significant influence on Irish traditional music and have given rise to the term "Sliabh Luachra style".