Robbie O'Connell
Robbie O'Connell is an Irish singer-songwriter born on December 28, 1950, in Waterford, Ireland. He performs solo and with groups like The Green Fields of America, and he often collaborates with relatives such as his cousin Dónal Clancy and the Clancy Brothers. He has toured and recorded with the Clancy Brothers, and for more than twenty years he has led small cultural tours to Ireland with Celtica Music & Tours and more than ten years with WGBH Learning Tours. He spends his time between Bristol, Rhode Island and Waterford.
Robbie grew up in Carrick-on-Suir at his family's Mount Richard guesthouse, where folk sessions helped him start playing guitar and singing with his sister Alice. He formed The Rotary Folk, which won the Kilkenny Beer Festival in the late 1960s. He married Roxanne Vigeant in 1974, and they lived in Acton, Massachusetts before moving back to Ireland in 1976. He formed The Bread & Beer Band and began touring with the Clancy Brothers in 1977, writing songs such as "Bobby's Britches" and "Ferrybank Piper." His first solo album, Close to the Bone, came out in 1982. He later worked with Mick Moloney and Jimmy Keane in The Green Fields of America, releasing There Were Roses (1985) and Kilkelly (1987).
In the 1990s he teamed up with Liam Clancy, first as a duo and then as Clancy, O’Connell & Clancy with Dónal Clancy. They released two albums before the group paused in 1999. The Clancy family performed together at the Milwaukee Irish Fest in 2000. Since 2006 he has partnered with Aoife and Dónal Clancy in The Clancy Legacy, whose first CD was released in 2010. Beyond recording, O’Connell continues to perform, tour, and teach Irish music, and he has co-authored Clean Cabbage in the Bucket.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:51 (CET).