Braid date for The Fureys

Renowned for their hit songs including ‘I Will Love You’, ‘When You Were Sweet 16’, ‘The Green Fields of France’, ‘The Old Man’, ‘Red Rose Café’, ‘From Clare to Here’, the band will perform in the Braid Arts Centre on Thursday, April 9.

The Fureys have been entertaining audiences worldwide for 36 years, audiences that have included former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Former Irish President Mary McAleese and the late Pope John Paul while Tony Blair has publicly stated his favourite peace song of all time is The Furey’s ‘Green Fields of France’.

Recently Irish President Michael D Higgins attended their concert in Dublin’s National Concert Hall.

The band was formed in 1978 literally by accident.

George, Paul and Davey were playing in Denmark with their own band called the Buskers and Eddie and Finbar, while touring in Germany were involved in a road accident.

When George and Paul got news of the accident they immediately travelled to Germany to be with their brothers.

They then decided that they should all be playing together and this was the start of The Fureys.

Inevitably changes have occurred over 30 years. Their brother Paul died suddenly in June 2002 and Finbar left the band in December 1996, however George and Eddie have continued to delight audiences on their tours and have just released a new CD ‘The Times They Are a Changing’.

The oldest of the brothers, Eddie Furey left home in 1966 and travelled to Scotland at the time of the great folk revival where he met and shared accommodation in Edinburgh with then unknown folk singers Billy Connolly, Gerry Rafferty and Alex Campbell, now all famous in their own right.

In 1969 with his brother Finbar, he was the special guest for the Clancys Brothers and Tommy Makem throughout the USA and Canada.

In 1971 he moved to mainland Europe where he toured for seven years, building up a huge following particularly in Germany.

Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics has credited Eddie with teaching him his first chords on guitar when they met up in the North East of England while Dave was still a teenager.

The Fureys are responsible for some of the most stirring music ever to capture the public imagination.

Their folk based music has received standing ovations in some of the biggest concert halls of the world and they credit their musical ability to their parents, Ted and Nora, who were well known musicians themselves.