Finbar and Eddie Furey are two brothers from a family of six comprising four boys and their parents. The whole family is musical. Mrs. Furey plays the banjo and the accordion ; Ted Furey, their father, plays fiddle, pipes, whistle, banjo and mandolin. Fin and Eddie began playing and singing professionally at the age of nine when they busked on trains going to football matches. Shortly afterwards they began playing all over Ireland at the famous O'Donoghue's Pub, at race courses and sea-side resorts. When Finbar was thirteen he got his first bag and chanter (a half set of pipes) and when he was fifteen he won the All Ireland junior championships for pipes. Within three years of this Finbar won twenty-three senior championships including the senior All Ireland and also won a couple of duet championships with brother Eddie. The two boys plus Ted Furey, their father, also won the Ulster senior trio championships and finally in 1966 Eddie and Finbar Furey won the international folk award in Tralee against eighty other groups. For this they got 170 in prize money which they say lasted about three days. 'It went to charity', says Eddie. 'Guinness charity' says Finbar.
Fin and Eddie are descended from the royal bards in West Merdh in Ireland centuries ago. 'We would probably still be there if Cromwell hadn't driven us out' says Eddie.
In 1967 Fin and Eddie ventured into Scotland for the first time with 6d in their respective pockets. They based themselves in Edinburgh and made many good friends such as Gordon Geekie, The Corries, Paddy Bell, Graeme Bell, Diane Halley and many others. In the early part of their stay in Scotland they worked at the Edinburgh docks digging out the new Imperial dock. Soon however, they became known in Scotland, as well as in Ireland, as two of the finest traditional musicians to emerge in recent years. They were invited to the hallowed Singers Club in London, played the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, The Ulster Hall, Belfast, and the Town Hall, Birmingham. They have appeared in Scotland on both BBC TV and STV and on Tyne Tees TV and at the 1967 Edinburgh Festival.