Sorry, GregB, but the first man to replace Tommy Makem in the quartet was Bobby Clancy. Louis Killen came later.

While I am among the many who would not have known Irish trad without the Clancys, I have to go a step further: I would not have known Ireland without the Clancys. Whenever a song mentioned a place or a person or a battle or anything else in Irish history or culture, I looked it up so I could better understand and sing the song. It was from the Clancys that I first heard about The United Irishmen, Wolfe Tone, Dan O'Connell, James Connelly, so many others. The Clancys made me look up Gaelic words I hadn't met before, like "craic" or "poitin." And then they introduced me to Scottish culture in the same way.

I became a folksinger of Irish music. I've been to Ireland four times now and claimed my dual citizenship. My kids know their ancestry, back several centuries (the knowledge of heritage had died out in my family because the Irish grandparents didn't pass it on). None of this would have happened but for the Clancys and Tommy. I'm happy to say I met all four brother and Tommy, and have even had Robbie O'Connell over to my house a couple of times (and Seamus Kennedy and Tommy Sands too!). God bless them all and everyone else who can "let the music take you home."