»» Seán and Myself Recording Roll Away

In 1978 I invited my Mother to visit with us in New York and at that same time Seán was touring the states with the Chieftains. Seán had arranged to have his wife Marie, daughter Deirdre and their two sons Pádraic and Darach join him in New York and this would mark the first gathering of our "clan" outside of Ireland. I had been working on recording my album "Roll Away the Reel World" and my Mother saw this as a golden opportunity to have her wish come true which was for the two brothers to play, for once, a few tunes together on a record. At the time Seán was very busy.

On the morning of the recording, as I prepared to leave for Connecticut, my Mother persuaded me to drive into Manhattan in chance of finding Seán while he was in town. United again, all the Keanes headed for Connecticut and on the way we discussed possible tunes, enough for four tracks. Amazingly we recorded each track on the first take. We hadn't played serious music together since 1965-'66 and it was clear that we had the same interpretations and settings of the tunes as it all came flowing back to us.

»» Ryan's Fancy at Disneyworld

I accepted an invitation from a very prominent Canadian based Irish folk group "Ryan's Fancy" to become a member and contribute to their music line-up.

In 1979 I moved to Canada and to a new address at The Head of St. Margaret's Bay on the south shore if Nova Scotia. We toured all over Canada but were better known as a group from the Maratimes. I recorded a few LP's with them and during that time we hosted our own C.B.C. "Superspecials" on network television. It's members were Denis Ryan from Newport, Co. Tipperary, Fergus O'Byrne from Dublin and Dermot O' Reilly from the same area of Dublin as myself. Unfortunately Dermot died at his home in St. Johns, Newfoundland on February 17th. 2007. R.I.P.

This photo is the result of a happy ending to an international incident that involved Ken Taylor who in 1979 was the Canadian Ambassador to Iran when he helped six American hostages. They had escaped and sought refuge at the Canadian embassy when Ken Taylor, with help from Joe Clark, Canadian Prime Minister, issued Canadian passports to fool the Iranians into believing they were Canadians in a covert operation called "The Canadian Caper".

On an invite from the American government, Ryan's Fancy was selected to record a one hour "Superspecial" at Disneyworld Florida produced by C.B.C. television.