The history of an authentic Irish band

The History of Irish Folk Band Henry Marten's Ghost.

Born in Belfast I grew up at the height of the troubles there in the 1970s. I attended Saint Paul's Primary school on the Falls Road and Saint Gabriel's in Ardoyne.

Music I listened to at that time was pop music and home grown Irish Rebel and Traditional.

It was the latter that I took up when I began singing Irish songs from behind curtains at the age of 5 in my Aunties' house in Chatham Street.

I formed Irish Band Henry Marten's Ghost in 1994 when I was a student in Oxford.

In 1999 I settled in Wales and met the current band members Huw Rees and Gill O' Shea. With Henry Marten's Ghost I have recorded 4 albums and 2 EPs.

1995 The Promised Land

1997 4 Track EP

2001 Top Secret

2002 Ireland a Troubled Romance

2005 High on Spirits

2006 4 Track EP

My solo album Ismay's Dream is now released through proper records click here for more information.

Henry Marten's Ghost, how it all began

Whilst reading politics at Ruskin College Oxford in 1991 I went to a pub called the Bullingdon Arms on the Cowley Road that was run by an Irishman. There was an Irish Music session there every Wednesday night.

On my first night there I borrowed a guitar and sang a rendition of the Green Fields of France and Dublin in the rare old times.

I started going every week and on one occasion a fiddle player turned up and accompanied me on my songs. We became good friends and played together every week at the Bullingdon.

Within two years of playing we formed a duo called Henry Marten's Battle Ensign and started playing Irish Songs in other pubs in and around Oxford.

Soon we were joined by two others playing whistles, accordion and bodhran. In 1994 the name of the band was changed to Henry Marten's Ghost. We armed ourselves with a PA microphones and everything needed for live gigs and unleashed our brand of Irish Music all over Europe.

For information on Henry Marten the man check out the links page.

Traditional Irish band available in Avon, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cleveland, Cornwall, Cumberland, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Manchester, Merseyside, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Clwyd, Dyfed, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Gwent, Gwynedd, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Europe.