~ Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann ~   Boston              

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   CCE Northeast Regional Hall of Fame Inductee 

   Owen Frain (RIP)~ (flute and piano) was born in 1896, and grew up in Roskey, Co. Mayo. At about age fourteen, he left Ireland to work in England's coal mines. He joined the U.S. Navy and in fact was stationed on a ship that sank off the coast of France. At about age twenty, he arrived in New York City, and studied flute with a flute and pipe player who recorded with James Morrison.

Later settling in Boston, Owen made many records with Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band, including the Hanafin brothers and Neil Nolan, beginning aboutl925— the first traditional ceili band recordings. They played in the famous dance halls of Boston, usually on Dudley Street in Roxbury, where the immigrant Irish people and their American Irish children danced the sets and ceili dances played by the finest musicans.

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