THE credit of recording the first Irish music on banjo goes to James Wheeler. With Edward Herborn accompanying him on the box, they made their first recordings in 1916 and 1917.
Mike Flanagan of the famous Flanagan Brothers played banjo. Born in Waterford in 1898, he started out playing the mandolin. His lively technique can be [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]