Band members

Anne-Marie Byrne (vocals, keyboard, whistles, recorder)	Eileen Byrne (vocals, guitar, cajón, small percussions)	Michel Byrne (vocals, guitar, djembe, whistles)	Patrick Byrne (vocals, 12-string guitar, hamonica, bodhrán)

plus

Orna Gilchrist (fiddle)	Elodie Malanda (flute)	Marielle Probst (flute)	Katherine Stewart (fiddler)

photos courtesy of Etienne Grimée

General information

The Byrnes' repertoire of Scottish, French and Irish songs reflects the family's mixed cultural background. Three of them - Anne-Marie, Michel and Patrick - were born and bred in Glasgow and brought up bilingual by their French mother and Scots-Irish father. As youngsters, they regularly performed songs from their countries of origin with their four other brothers and sisters. The fourth member of the present band, Eileen (Patrick's elder daughter), grew up in Luxembourg and is also German through her mother, adding a further element to the group's cultural mix.

Although they see less of each other nowadays, living as they do in the Lake District (Anne-Marie), Munich (Eileen), Edinburgh (Michel) and Luxembourg (Patrick), they haven't lost the urge to sing as a group. They get together every so often to record new material and give concerts.

Their repertoire includes a variety of types of music, from traditional to contemporary, sung in French, English and Gaelic, and with a number of different instruments. They are normally accompanied by two other musicians, one on the fiddle (Terry O'Brien 2003-04; Orna Gilchrist since 2005) and another on the flute (Elodie Malanda, Marielle Probst).

Catriona Byrne, elder sister of Anne-Marie, Michel and Patrick, often joins them on stage at some point in their performance for a few steps of Irish dancing, her speciality.