One-horned Cow

The (Suffering) Gaels

WERE the Best Irish Band of the Northwest
but are no more.

Band members have mostly moved on to form a new band called Crumac - www.crumac.com
Please follow this link for up to date activities.

The remaining elements of this page are for archival elements and for drinking about old times only.

About the (Suffering) Gaels

link to 31k photo of the Gaels

"The Suffering Gaels' musical talents are exceeded only by their talent for obscurity"  said Martin Hayes, renown Irish fiddler. Or at least, he might have said it, if a would-be anonymous Irish musician from Vancouver, BC. hadn't said it first. This home page ambitiously aspires to change that.

The (Suffering) Gaels is have suffered enough. They are now known as the Gaels and, in either form, have been the foremost traditional Irish Band in the West. The band plays a spirited mix of dance music and instrumentals interspersed with contemporary and traditional songs. Along with the compelling guitar work of Finn MacGinty and lashing fiddling of Dale Russ and Conor Byrne*, the Gaels are one of the few bands sporting an excellent uilleann piper in the likes of Tom Creegan. (* Conor Byrne has been reported missing as of late, but the band will undoubtedly delight in his return. pub in Ballard lives on.)

In the course of the last eighteen years the band has performed in venues from Fairbanks to San Francisco and from Chicago to Kyoto, Japan. In 1993 and 1994 they were invited to play the Milwaukee Irish Festival - the largest of its kind in the U.S. - bringing them to the notice of an ever-widening audience. 1994 was also the year that the band was invited by Takaishi Tomoya, the folk-singer hero of Japan, to perform at the celebration of Kyoto's 1200th birthday. The band spent two weeks in Kyoto and performed at that city's famed Maruyama Park as well appearing with Takaishi at several of his concerts.

Each year, the Suffering Gaels have featured prominently in the Northwest Folklife Festival and were honoured to have been selected as the opening cut on the "Twenty Years of Folklife" CD in 1991. The band also recorded their first album that year titled "'Bout Time" and they released their second album on CD "The One-Horned Cow" in February 1996.

The Suffering Gaels are comfortable in many settings and can excite audiences whether on the concert stage, in a bar or playing for a wedding in a private home. The skill of the band and the gusto of its music has delighted crowds for over a decade. The Suffering Gaels look forward to finding even wider audiences to join them in enjoying the spirit and energy of traditional Irish music.

For more information on the Suffering Gaels or for purchasing recordings, write or call:

8726 25th Ave. NW
Seattle, WA 98117
Tel: (206) 784-8268

© Copyright Poguemahone Productions 1996-forever

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The Suffering Gaels Pages were produced by Gary Newman

Last updated May 10, 2006