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The four members of this group come from a family which has a history of crossing borders. Patrick, Michel and Anne-Marie, the three older members of the group, whose mother is French and father Scottish/Irish, were born and bred in Glasgow. With their four other brothers and sisters, they began at an early age to sing songs and play music from their three countries of origin and to perform in public, accompanying themselves on various instruments, including guitars, keyboards, drums (bodhrán and djembe), mouth organ and tin whistle.
Although they see less of each other nowadays, scattered as they are (Anne-Marie in the Lake District, Michel in Edinburgh and Patrick in Luxembourg), they haven't lost the urge to sing as a group. They have got together at regular intervals over the last few years to work on new material – essentially (but not solely) folk songs in English, French and Scots Gaelic – and to devise their own arrangements. Patrick's eldest daughter, Eileen, who grew up in Luxembourg, joined them for the first time on stage in 2003 and is now a fully-fledged member of the group.
Their current repertoire is entitled 'Crossing Borders – Au-delà des frontières'. In concert, they are accompanied in some pieces by Orna Gilchrist (from Edinburgh) on the fiddle and by Elodie Malanda (from Luxembourg) on the flute.
Sales of the Byrne family's CD, also entitled 'Crossing Borders' (September 2004), have so far raised a total of over £13 000 for a reconstruction project in Kinkala, in the part of Congo-Brazzaville worst hit by successive civil wars between 1997 and 2003. |
