Robbie O'Connell

Robbie O'Connell (born 28 December 1950 ) is an Irish singer songwriter who performs solo, as well as with The Green Fields of America.

He also appears with Dónal Clancy (cousin), Dan Milner, and fiddler Rose Clancy.

O'Connell has also toured and recorded with The Clancy Brothers, being their nephew.

For over 20 years, he has conducted small cultural tours to Ireland with Celtica Music & Tours and, for more than ten years, WGBH Learning Tours.

Married with four grown children, he now spends his time between Bristol, Rhode Island and Waterford.

Robbie O'Connell was born in 1950 in St. John's Parish, Waterford, Ireland, to Seán and Cáit (née Clancy) O'Connell.

His early years were spent on the Cork Road, Waterford.

When he was 7, his family moved to his mother's home town of Carrick-on-Suir where they established a guesthouse, Mount Richard.

When Cáit's brother Bobby returned from New York in the mid 1950s, he suggested that they should convert the cellar to a folk music venue where they could hold ballad and music sessions.

Very soon, Mount Richard — and later, Tinvane Hotel — became a thriving venue that hosted the likes of Seamus Ennis, Dolly MacMahon, Leo Rowsome, Jean Ritchie and others.

It was in this atmosphere that Robbie and his sister Alice began to play (guitar) and sing folk and traditional music.

They formed a group called The Rotary Folk with Sean Rattigan and Noel Carroll, which went on to win the Kilkenny Beer Festival in the late 1960s.

During his years at University College Dublin, he traveled to the United States during the summer to perform on the Irish music circuit.

In 1972, he met singer Roxanne Vigeant.

They performed together as "Robbie & Roxanne" and then as "The Munster Cloak" with bassist Tony Riordan.

They were married in 1974, settling in Acton, Massachusetts.

They moved to Ireland in 1976 following the death of his mother in a car accident in Wexford.

Robbie formed The Bread & Beer Band with friends Tommy Keane, Paul Grant and Martin Murray.

Two of their four children were born during this time.

The ballad sessions continued at Tinvane Hotel with frequent appearances by Dermot Morgan (Father Ted), Paddy Glackin, Colum and Tommy Sands, and piper Tommy Kearney.

A nephew of the Clancy Brothers, O'Connell began touring with Paddy, Tom, and Bobby Clancy in 1977, taking the place of Liam Clancy who was working with Tommy Makem as a part of Makem and Clancy.

O'Connell sang, played guitar and, occasionally, mandolin.

Beginning in 1977, the Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell toured three months each year in March, August, and November in the United States.

O'Connell, who had been a songwriter since his early teens, composed several songs that the group sang regularly, such as "Bobby's Britches," "Ferrybank Piper," and "You're Not Irish."

He also included songs written by others, such as "Dear Boss" and "Sister Josephine."

Reviews cited O'Connell as a fresh addition to the group and with his original compositions, the future of the group.

In 1979 he and his family moved to Franklin, Massachusetts.

With the release in 1982 of his first solo album, Close to the Bone, O'Connell emerged as an artist of major stature.

He began touring with Mick Moloney and Jimmy Keane, and also with Eileen Ivers and Séamus Egan in the Green Fields of America.

Moloney, O'Connell & Keane recorded two albums, both of which garnered critical acclaim.

The first was There Were Roses released in 1985 with the title track, the song "There Were Roses", penned by Tommy Sands.

Second was Kilkelly in 1987, containing the title track "Kilkelly".

Both albums were released on the Green Linnet label.

O'Connell continued to perform part-time with the Clancy brothers for nineteen years.

In 1992 he performed at Carnegie Hall with them and also sang and played the guitar on the telecast of a live tribute to Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden.

In 1996 Liam Clancy and O'Connell left the Clancy Brothers and formed their own duo, called simply Liam Clancy and Robbie O'Connell.

Before splitting, the Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell gave a farewell tour of both Ireland and America in February and March 1996.

The Irish tour in February was filmed near the Clancys' hometown, televised and later released to video and DVD as The Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell: Farewell to Ireland.

Liam Clancy and Robbie O'Connell toured for a while as a duo, but very soon added Liam's son Dónal Clancy to the group, forming the trio Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy.

The trio released two albums, a self-titled debut album in 1997 and an album of sea songs in 1998, The Wild and Wasteful Ocean.