15 Facts About John Sheahan

John Sheahan was born on 19 May 1939 and is an Irish musician and composer.

John Sheahan joined The Dubliners in 1964 and played with them until 2012 when The Dubliners' name was retired following the death of founding member Barney McKenna.

John Sheahan's father, a native of Glin, County Limerick, was a member of the Garda Siochana stationed in Dublin.

John Sheahan is the great-nephew of Patrick Sheahan, a Dublin Metropolitan Policeman, who in 1905 died trying to save the life of a pipe workman who was overcome by toxic exhalations in a sewer on Hawkins Street, Dublin, where a memorial statue stands today.

John Sheahan went to school at the local Christian Brothers in Marino, Dublin, where he received his first musical education, learning the tin whistle.

John Sheahan played with a number of bands around the country until he met The Dubliners in the early 1960s.

John Sheahan joined the band in 1964, together with Bobby Lynch.

John Sheahan is the only member of the Dubliners to have had a formal musical education.

In 2013 John Sheahan went on tour with Jane and Shane in Denmark playing classical music and some famous Irish jigs such as The Irish Washerwoman.

John Sheahan joined in some informal sessions in pubs in Dublin featuring other Irish musicians and Luke Kelly's brother Jim Kelly.

In October 2013, John Sheahan was on The Late Late Show on RTE with Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains and performed a jig together on the tin whistle.

John Sheahan said he was working on a solo album which would contain a collection of unrecorded compositions he had written over the past 50 years and was developing a book containing his poetry.

John Sheahan played at Templebar Tradfest in Dublin City Hall in January 2014.

On 10 April 2014 John Sheahan was part of Ceiliuradh at which he and other Irish musicians performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the Irish presidential visit to the UK.

John Sheahan sang a verse of "The Auld Triangle" and played the fiddle to accompany other musicians.