Larry Kirwan

Larry Kirwan (born 1954 in Wexford, Ireland) is an expatriate Irish writer and musician, most noted as the lead singer for the US rock band, Black 47.Prior to Black 47, Kirwan and fellow Wexfordian Pierce Turner were the house band in Malachy McCourt's Bells of Hell in Greenwich Village. Their music was a blend of folk, trad, progressive rock, Celtic rock and punk. The group was one of the few groups banned from CBGB's. In the words of Hilly Kristal they were "too demonic". They then led the new wave band Major Thinkers for some years. Their song Avenue B (is the place to be) became a radio hit whereupon they were signed to Epic-Portrait Records. They recorded an album: Terrible Beauty, that was never released and after a performance in Irving Plaza on St. Patrick's Day 1985 they disbanded. Kirwan has also written and produced eleven plays and musicals, some of which have been performed in the United States and Europe. The plays deal mainly with Irish history and politics. The most popular is Liverpool Fantasy. Five of the plays: Liverpool Fantasy, Days of Rage, Mister Parnell, Blood and Night in the Garden are published in the book, Mad Angels. Kirwan is working on a musical: Transport, with Australian author Thomas Keneally. Kirwan formed Black 47 with Chris Byrne in late 1989 after a jam in Paddy Reilly's Pub in Manhattan. The band has released 13 CDs including Fire of Freedom (1993) containing the hit Funky Ceili; Iraq (2008) and Bankers and Gangsters (2010). They have performed over 2000 shows. Since April 2005, he has hosted Celtic Crush, a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio that features artists from the 8 Celtic nations who play a wide variety of genres. He also writes a weekly column for the Irish Echo. He has published several books, including a novel version of Liverpool Fantasy and a new novel: Rockin' The Bronx was published in February 2010. In 2013 he co-produced a various artists compilation for Valley Entertainment titled Larry Kirwan's Celtic Invasion.