I was born in Belfast in 1952, and have been writing songs since I was 14 when my mother bought me my first guitar. I spent the later years of the 60's working on building sites in London, before moving to Dublin for work in the early 70's. Writing a song in a cheap bedsit far from your home and comfort zone is different from scribbling in your comfy, familiar bedroom at home. However the experiences I had living in these cities have added certain sentiments and tinges to my songs over the years. Sometimes the lonesomeness of where I was touched me sore, and sometimes the longings for home, for friends - good friends gripped me, changed me and moulded me and influenced me greatly how and why I wrote. I say now I’m not claiming to be good or bad at what I do but I’ll keep doing it whatever. . After Dublin, I moved back to Belfast and met and married Kathleen in 1977. We are blessed with four amazing children, Gerard, Kathryn, Kristea and Lauren - all of whom think their Dad's a bit crazy. Probably true. Over the years, I've done a great number of things to earn a living - all of them have been merely a distraction from my music. The irony of it all is I don’t listen to music, I stopped listening when I realised I wasn’t hearing the songs anymore I realised was hearing was someone else’s technique and presentation, and it was a strange place to be, it still is - and I can’t enjoy a song now the way I once did but I get it just as much as I always did, I just get ...