Mick, We performed together a few times. The Cleveland Irish Festival run by John O'Brien in the early years. I remember a poem or recitation you had about what it is to be an Irishman. I'd love to hear it again or at least read a transcript. There was, for awhile, an Irish Brigade group out of Iowa, I think. I heard them at Kitty O'Shea's ?? in the Chicago Hilton Towers. Their cassette albums were from a previous incarnation of the group when they were called Three Sheets to the Wind.

Our group, Dave Murphy, Pat Mogan, Kevin Talty, Dennis Smith and myself, Greg Hankins, began in January of 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. For some time we've had a sideman on fiddle and banjo named Phil Franck. On two of our albums we used an instrumentalist named Doug Rudy. Our albums are: The Irish Brigade, Live ** Raised on Songs and Stories ** Leprechauns and Unicorns ** Are You Ready for This? ** Ports, Pints and Poetry ** Doublin' Up

We've performed hundreds of festivals and concerts in the midwest and northeast. In our early years we played pubs. We've been headliners for many festivals and have performed concerts with Makem & Clancy, The Dublin City Ramblers, The Barleycorn, Sons of Erin and others. Because Diet Coke is my beverage of choice I tend to remember more of our past schedules than do the other Boys of the Brigade.

There are probably one or two other "Brigades" because it is such a good name. We perform less often since the passing of Dave Murphy from cancer 3 years ago. We are booking some jobs for next March. I hope this info about our Brigade helps.