Singers Sarah and Rita Keane were born in Caherlistrane, Co Galway – Rita in 1923, and Sarah c1919. They were the daughters of Matt Keane and his wife May (née Costello). Their father played Jew’s harp, while their mother, from a family of singers and musicians, collected songs; her large repertoire included Lord Donegal, a [...]

Anne Byrne had the classic ’show biz’ start to her singing career, appearing on stage at the age of three with her mother and father in amateur pantomime and musical shows. Her mother’s family, the Bradys, hail from Dun Laoghaire in Co. Dublin and were all extremely musical.
Her uncle, the famous Willie Brady,  who in [...]

Maire Ni Scolai was born in Dublin and learned her Irish in the Ring Gaeltacht of Co Waterford. After she moved to Galway  in the 1920s she organised classes in Irish singing and dancing with her sister Mona.
A very early broadcaster on Radio Eireann – or 2RN as it was then called – Maire Ni [...]

FAME came in his 60th year to singer and fiddle player Dessie O’Halloran of Inishboffin The year 2001 saw him travel from his Atlantic island home off the Galway/Mayo coast to perform in Europe and [...]

By Ronan Nolan
THE raw, uncompromising voice of the street singer had to carry above the noisy chatter of the fair or football crowd. Ballad singer Margaret Barry rarely failed to gain attention with her gutsy voice, pronounced Cork accent and simple banjo accompaniment.
She was born in Peter Street, Cork, in 1917, into [...]

Although born in Dublin, Moya (Máire) Brennan is as Donegal as they come. At the age of two she was brought back to Donegal by her father, Leo Brennan, a band leader, and mother, Babba, nee Duggan, a music teacher from Gweedore. Theirs was a very close-knit family in an Irish-speaking community and grandfather Hugh [...]

Born in 1947 in Strabane, Co Tyrone. He was a member of R&B group, the Kult, while a student in Dublin. He joined The Johnstons, renowned for their neat harmonies, and the group had enjoyed a number one hit with Ewan McColl’s The Travelling People. The Curragh of Kildare was another successful single.
In 1969 the [...]

SINGING was encouraged in the Casey family home in Ballyduff Lower in Co Waterford. Both Karen’s grandmothers sang. While at school she was involved in the GAA Scor na nOg competitions and then in Slogadh.
In 1987, after a year in Waterford Regional College, she went to University College, Dublin, to study music. Unhappy with the [...]

I never met Bob Dylan but I sang with Pecker Dunne – Christy Moore
Pecker Dunne was born into a Wexford travelling family. He was actually born in a horse-drawn caravan in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on April 1, 1932. He tells us in the song Wexford that his father was a fiddle player and was known [...]

By Ronan Nolan
“I’m a vagabond from Eireann’s isle Sunburnt thumb stuck up in the air”
Singer, songwriter and artist Joe Dolan who died on January 7, 2008, was a founder member of Sweeney’s Men. The prefix ‘Galway’ Joe Dolan was later applied for late night clarity to distinguish him from the showband singer Joe Dolan of [...]

Frank Harte was born on May 14, 1933, on the banks of the Liffey, at Chapelizod, where his family ran The Tap pub. His introduction to Irish singing came, he said, from a chance listening to an itinerant who was selling ballad sheets at a fair in Boyle. He became a great exponents of the [...]

Christie Hennessy was  born in Tralee, Co Kerry, in 1945, the youngest of nine children. His father, an electrician, played jazz on the accordion, his mother sang Irish traditional songs and they often hosted music sessions at their home on Saturday nights. When Christie was six his father died and he had an unsettled childhood. [...]

Blessed with a voice like a bullfrog with a hangover, Ronnie Drew has been at the heart of Irish ballad singing for nearly half a century. Born in Dun Laoghaire in south Dublin  on September 16, 1934, his father was a carpenter and at first the family lived in a tenement but then moved to [...]

Singer, songwriter and musician Andy Irvine was born on June 14, 1942, in Southgate, London. His father was from Scotland and mother from Ireland. He showed an early interest in acting and the skiffle groups of the late 1950s. He started to learn classical guitar and after coming across the music [...]

Cathy Jordan, singer with Dervish, grew up on a small farm in Scramogue, Co Roscommon. She got her love for traditional singing at an early age, from her father in particular, and sang publicly at all kind of Feiseanna and concerts as a child. In later years she took to performing a wide range of [...]

Described memorably by Nanci Griffith as “the voice of Ireland,” Dolores Keane has an earthy and instantly recognisable singing style.
She was born in Castlehackett, Co. Galway on September 26, 1953. It was not unusual then in a large family for a child to be brought up by close relatives. So Dolores was raised from the [...]

Luke Kelly was born on November 17, 1940, into a working class family in Sheriff Street, a quarter of a mile from Dublin’s O’Connell Street. His grandmother, who was a McDonald from Scotland, lived with the family until her death in 1953. His father worked all his life in Jacobs biscuit factory and enjoyed playing [...]

Tommy Makem was born in Keady, Co Armagh, in 1932. His mother, Sarah Makem, born 1900, and her cousin Annie Jane Kelly were members of the Singing Greenes of Keady. They contributed a [...]

Christy Moore was born in 1945. The eldest of six children, he grew up in Newbridge, Co Kildare. Both his sister Ailish and brother Barry (Luka Bloom) are singers. The music in the house came from their mother Nancy, who passed away in 1992. All of the Moore children learned piano, and went to voice teachers [...]

“Despite his brief dalliances with fame, Moynihan always somehow found his way back to the dirt tracks and back roads of music” – Leagues O’Toole
BORN IN Phibsboro, Dublin, Johnny Moynihan dropped out of architectural college. Though a young when he became known in 1966 as a member of Sweeney’s Men, he was actually part of the [...]