My father was the first big musical influence in my life.
He taught pipes and drums, and had a very successful
band
called New Eire Girls Pipe Band. I began playing the
guitar first, then moved on to the banjo, until I finally
settled on the tin whistle. I also played the Uillean Pipes,
and a great pipe player Dan O'Dowd made my first practice
set for me.
I was born in Dublin aird grew up in Drimnagh.
In the early 50s we had to move to Bluebell, another
Dublin
suburb, to accommodate our hig family of twelve children.
I went to school in St. Michaels Christian Brothers School in
Inchcre.
It was here that I first learned and became interested in
the history of Ireland, and it was the Christian
Brothers
who first instaled the love of Irish music and rebel songs
into me. The gymnasium at the schools where the
1918 leaders
were brought after their arrest and spent their first night
of detention there, before being taken to
nearby Kilmainham Jail.
where they were later executed for their part in the rising
When I finished school I spent nearly every weekend travelling
around Ireland to the Fleadh Ceoils and quickly
accrued a great
love of Irish traditional music. It was one such weekend
myself and Brian were in Roscommon at a fleadh
when we met
Tommy Byrne and that was the start of The Wolfe Tones.
Since then we have gone from strength to strength.
We
have sold millions of albums and travelled the world.
I married my wife Marie in 1970 and we have four children,
and one grandchild. We live in County Wicklow in the
''Garden Of Ireland''
I still enjoy the gigs, recording and preforming and hope to
continue for many years to come.
