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Vincent Harrison (1927–2009) was born in Tullycooley, Dromahair, County Leitrim. His chief musical influences as a youth were his fiddle-playing mother Mary, her flute-playing brother Hughie Travers, and Drumkeeran fiddler Joe “Lackey” Gallagher. Soon after arriving in New York in 1954, his older brother Joe, who had preceded him to the Bronx, directed him to Lad O’Beirne. Vincent and Lad struck up a lasting musical friendship and recorded some duets on O’Beirne’s home-made disc recorder. Vincent was also a close musical friend of Martin Wynne. In 1988, he returned to Ireland, where he lived in Clontarf, Dublin near his sister Moira and took great pleasure in passing on his musical knowledge to younger players in the capital.
