Both of my parents are from Ireland; Mom, Veronica, is from Mayo and Dad, Colm, is from Leitrim. My Dad played fiddle when he was younger and wanted me to play. My father loved Irish music severely. I started violin when I was 6yrs old with Maureen Glynn-Connolly.

I took lessons from Maureen in Brooklyn and started competing when I was 7, in the NY Fleadh Cheoil. I later on “graduated” to lessons in the Breffini Inn, in Sunnyside Queens, with about 40 other students playing fiddles, piano accordions flutes, whistles, button accordions, piano, drums and bodhran’s. It was really incredible. Maureen Glynn played all these instruments, she taught us by ear, and Dad drove me to every lesson.

It wasn’t that Maureen just taught us tunes, it was that she was teaching us music. Her passion for music was so overwhelming that she made it exciting to learn. My Dad was at every performance, encouraging me every step of the way, and sharing everything he loved about music.

I competed in the NY Fleadh and the All-Ireland for roughly 11 years, earning 12 All Ireland titles, along with the Joe Cooley Ceili Band.. Although we were practicing and rehearsing a lot of the year for the competitions, we also played at all different sorts of events. I was 11 yrs old the first time I went to Ireland and competed in the All-Ireland. I competed, and played festivals, concerts, benefits, dances, workshops, radio and TV shows, in NYC and Ireland with my friends from Maureen's school in NYC and Ireland for 13 years.

While in Phoenix, Arizona I played with a number of Irish folk rock bands: Ashling, the Clare Voyants, O'Carroll's Gate, the McMorrows, the Brid Dower Band...Jazz bands: Subterranean Jazz...Country Western: Jadi & the Overdrive; Irish traditional bands: Glen Road, Realta, Rabharta...I also played fiddle for Michael Flatley's, "Lord of the Dance". My last year in Arizona was spent hosting an open Irish session at Rosie McCaffrey’s with a wonderful harper, Chris Boydston.