Jack Coen

Jack Coen was born in 1925 in Woodford, County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, the second of nine children. His family operated a subsistence farm and earned money from raising cattle. When he was a child, Coen says, "If the boys and girls wanted to dance, they'd come to our house. My father [Michael Coen] played a concertina ... he was the only musician around that village. It was the poor people's entertainment in Ireland." When Coen was about eight years of age he received a tin whistle for Christmas.