Tommy Martin took his first Uilleann Pipes lesson from Dublin piper, Mick O’Brien, a cousin, in 1984 at the age of 12. By 1988, with the great help of Mick’s tuition and guidance he won first at the Annual Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, and again in 1991.

From his late teens Tommy has been very much involved in encouraging traditional Irish music by teaching younger musicians around Ireland at various Tionol and Scoil Eigse.

His professional career started in 1996 when he took a job organizing and playing at Irish music nights in Irish pubs in Hong Kong.

This led to more work in Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore and Tokyo over the following years. One great time was had playing support to ‘Shooglenifty’ at the Hong Kong Folk Festival in 1996.

Back in Europe, Tommy’s talent and experience took him to perform in almost every mainland country.

Performances have varied from solo events to playing with 5 piece folk bands and have been as diverse as being an Uilleann Pipes tutor in New Zealand to performing with "Riverdance" in New York, to performing with the Chicago Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra.

His first solo CD, “Uilleann Piper”, was released in 2000 and Tommy can be also heard on 12 other albums, as a guest musician.

Tommy’s second album was released in Dec 2005. That month he also toured as a guest with traditional band Teada as they celebrated their “Irish Christmas in America” tour. Other guests were Grainne Hambly on harp and singer, Cathie Ryan.

Tommy now lives in St. Louis Missouri where, while not traveling, he now works for St. Louis Irish Arts teaching Irish traditional music on fiddle, flute, mandolin and Uilleann Pipes.

Bernie had been singing Irish and American folk songs for years until he was asked to take Daithi Sproule’s place in Bowhand, a group that also had James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien. Since then Bernie has been in demand to accompany tunes in mid-western America and has done with the likes of Martin Hayes, Mick O’Brien, Paddy O’Brien and loads more.

Eileen Gannon - Harp

In 2000, Eileen won the All-Ireland Senior Harp competition at the Fleadh. She was only the third American to win this title. Eileen is now, and was in demand to back a tune while studying for her degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Limerick. Eileen was a member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and has performed with the University City Symphony Orchestra but nowadays finds herself busy teaching Harp and playing with pipers, fiddlers and such.

Kevin Buckley - Fiddle

Kevin is a great fiddle player in the Irish tradition. There is no shortage of great fiddle players in Ireland and Kevin Buckley can certainly hold his own with the best of the Irish players. This is certainly helped by the fine tunes and tips he learned from fiddle players like James Kelly, Martin Hayes and Andy McGann as they all spent some time in St. Louis.

 Patsy O’Brien - Guitar

Providing accompaniment to Irish tunes is one of many feathers in Patsy’s hat. His career started as a bass player in “Mulcahy Magic”, a Mitchelstown based showband. Then on to a punk band called ‘Snatch’. These days he can be found performing his own finely written songs and when not doing that you’ll see him with Paddy Keenan or Eileen Ivers or even me.