For thirty years I led the “Irish Rovers” around the world with our lively brand of Celtic music. The songs we sang told stories about Unicorns, Harbour lights, boats and oceans. About Moonshine men, Tinkermen and drunken sailors, beautiful Colleens, fine Irish racehorses and fast Dogs, and most of all about the magic of that 'Emerald Isle'. All these songs implanted images in my soul and it was only natural that all my writing and music ad paintings carried the same theme.
I have been in love with painting since I was a child. Our family ate our humble meals at a table constantly cluttered with paints and brushes and half finishes works of art. I remember I used to thin my cheap oil paint by dipping my brush in the glass oil lamp that lighted the house. I knew an old art teacher who lived in an ancient manor house full of glorious clutter, and hundreds of paintings. I loved it! I'd cut sticks for her fireplace and in exchange she would give me art lessons. I used to tell my mates (a gang of rough little street urchins) that she paid me for the sticks – art lessons might have started a fight.
