Anne had the classic 'show biz'
start to her singing career appearing on stage at the age of
three with her Mother and Father in amateur pantomime and
musical shows. Her mother's family, the Bradys, hail from Dun
Laoghaire in Co. Dublin and were all extremely musical. Her
uncle, the famous Willie Brady, who in the
nineteen-fifties and sixties had been a recording artist for
Avoca Records in the U.S.A. and Ireland. was one of the first
Irish artists to revive and popularize the singing of Irish
songs and ballads at this time. He was frequently to be heard on
Radio Eireann. Anne's professional singing career began when,
at the age of seventeen, she won first prize in the Father
Mathew Feis which brought her exceptional singing voice to the
attention of a wider audience. |
Her artistry soon attracted the
attention of the newly fledged Irish television station
(Telfis Eireann) and she was to become a regular performer
on the numerous folk and ballad television programmes Telfis
Eireann produced during the sixties and early seventies. In 1969 Anne travelled to New York with her husband Paddy Roche to take up a residency in the Irish Pavilion on 57th Street and Lexington. From this base she was to travel extensively throughout the USA performing in many prestigious venues. |
A highlight of her American sojourn
was her performance on the Philladelphia folk festival in 1969
alongside such artists as Richard Thompson, Jim Croce, Doc
Watson, and The Fairport Convention. In early 1971 Anne decided that the rearing of her two year old son Jason took precedence over her American singing career and she returned to Ireland to devote more of her time to family life. She still continued to sing in the major Dublin venues and throughout Ireland and also make many more television appearances. However with the arrival of her second son Oisin in 1973, Anne decided to retire from the professional entertainment world and now lives a very contented existence with her husband Paddy in Dun Loaghaire in Co. Dublin, the beautiful seaside town where she was born. |