Pete Duffy

Pete Duffy was born on the North side of Cork City, in 1945, and has enjoyed a long and fruitful career as musician, initially as co-founder of the famed Cork rock 'n' roll group, The Reptiles, and then as a solo artist whose talents have taken him all around the world. In 2013 he celebrated fifty years in show-business by releasing a career-spanning compilation of self-penned songs, 'The Original Pete Duffy', which has received widespread recognition both at home and abroad. He performed material from the album as part of the Mother Jones Festival, which earned him a special commendation from the Mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh, on behalf of the city, and was one of the clear highlights when he took to the stage at St. Finbarr's Cathedral as part of the Western Front Association's 'Evening of Remembrance' concert, to commemorate the Irish who died in the Great War. Now entering his seventieth year, he continues to gig widely, and is a fixture of the city's (and county's) music circuit.

But while the music will always be a defining characteristic, he has, in recent years, also begun to explore fresh directions with his art. In addition to being the driving force behind the Lennox Robinson Literary Festival - an annual programme of audacious events designed not only to bring the world's finest literature into the heart of Douglas but to revive interest in one of Ireland's greatest, and now sadly overlooked, playwrights - Pete is steadily etching a place for himself in Cork's literary scene.

Since the well-received 2010 CD release of his orated narratives, 'Stories from Cork', several of his short stories have been published in such magazines and newspapers as Ireland's Own, The Holly Bough and the Evening Echo. Then, in 2014, he published his first collection, the best-selling 'Old Dog For The Hard Road', a book that mixes poignancy and hilarity and which has earned critical comparison with the likes of Daniel Corkery, Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain and John B. Keane. One of the stories from the collection, 'For Services Rendered' was adapted for the stage to great acclaim, with Pete is making acting debut in the lead role.

The play is currently being prepared for a revival and possible tour.

For Pete, the journey is only just beginning, but the road ahead is brightly lit.

Petes books comprise a mixture of poems and tales that capture the essence of an era gone by. Petes imagination and creativity have also resulted in stories and poems from different periods in history and are so cleverly written, you cannot help but wonder what is real and what is fiction. His tales of family,love lost, hardships and challenges are a shapshot of growing up in Ireland where as his verse and tales from beyind Ireland, reflect the talent of a true story teller, that really is Pete Duffy