Except for twelve years spent working between Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Tipperary, Neil Brosnan has lived in his native Listowel.

From birth, his world was one of traditional Irish music, song and dance: his father, Tim, was a renowned accordion player and set dancer, while no session in the Brosnan household was complete without a song from Neil’s mother, Kitty (nee Galvin).

Unlike his three sisters, Neil failed to reach the family standard as a dancer and when, in his mid-teens, his efforts on the accordion suffered a similar fate, he turned to the guitar. In addition to accompanying his dad’s tunes, Neil was soon introducing some of his own songs to his repertoire of ballads, old and new.

In 1983, Neil performed his composition Apples in the Garden at the Tipperary International Song of Peace Festival. The song was subsequently recorded by Pat Mac on his album Going Home

Many more songs would follow, some of which Neil recorded with his group Rantan (featuring Michelle Dalton, Joseph Dalton and Tom Allen) and later with Jim Gornall, Pat O’Connell and Stephen Flynn on their CD Live at the Harp and Lion. available in Dingle Record Shop.

In 2004 and 2006 respectively, An Ghaoth Aniar claimed All-Ireland and World Fleadh medals to add to his many county and provincial successes with newly composed songs in both English and Irish. Sessions from the Shop

2004 also marked Neil’s arrival on the literary scene when his short story Fresh Water won the Bryan MacMahon award at Listowel Writers’ Week. www.writersweek.ie

After the publication of several other stories in various magazines and anthologies – including the success of Last Dance in the Ireland’s Own competition in 2006 – a collection of twenty of Neil’s stories (Fresh Water and other stories) was published in 2010. A second collextion (Neap Tide and other stories) was published in 2013. http://newbinarypress.com/product/neap-tide-other-stories-by-neil-brosnan-first-edition-hardback/