BRIAN MOONEY

Brian Mooney was born in Peak Hill, NSW in 1930. As the youngest boy of an Irish family living in Hay NSW and later in Sydney he was deeply influenced by the stories and songs by his Dublin born mother. During the years he worked in QLD and sang for his work mates in the pubs, his experiences as a cane cutter and fruit packer gave added meaning to his songs of the working man while his continued involvement in and increasing knowledge of Irish history and folk stories gave a depth of his understanding of the Irish songs he loves.

Mooney taught himself the guitar in his late 20s and his full time singing started in the late 50s. He cut his first album 'Moreton Bay (And Other Songs, Mainly Of Convict Origin)' in 1960 with other folkies, Martyn Wyndham-Read and David Lumsden. In 1965 a second album followed, 'Will Ye Go Lassie Go?' with Glen Tomasetti and Martyn Wyndham-Read. His third album, this being a solo effort was titled 'Brian Mooney Sings Irish Songs' was released soon after.

In 1965, he travelled to Ireland and stayed twenty-one years in Galway, where he married and raised a family of four sons. During this time, he had a number of successful exhibitions as an artist in Galway, and toured Europe and England on eleven occasions singing and playing folk and traditional songs. Returning to Australia in 1986, he had shows in Melbourne and Tasmania and was invited by the Galway Arts Centre, to exhibit his Irish and Australian paintings during the prestigious Galway Arts Festival. Brian Mooney died in 2023.

EPs

'Irish Folk Songs' 1965 W&G

ALBUMS

'Moreton Bay' [with Martyn Wyndham-Read and David Lumsden] 1960 Score

'Will Ye Go Lassie Go?' [Glen Tomasetti and Martyn Wyndham-Read] 1965 W&G

'Sings Irish Songs' 1965 Gem

'Brian Mooney Sings Irish Songs' date unknown W&G