Belfast Andi: Montreal's Irish music revolutionary

It's hard to disagree. His arms are adorned with tattoos of animals in stylized Celtic designs. His black clothes, silver bike-chain bracelet, wavy red hair and goatee make the 44-year-old, known to all as Belfast Andi, one of Westmount's most distinctive characters.

He is also one of Montreal's most prominent traditional-Irish musicians and arguably its most authentic.

Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he moved to Montreal in the mid-1990s and now lives in Westmount with his wife, Diane, and their three children Saoirse, Aoife, and Áine.

“Folk music was part of the Nationalist scene,” Andi said of growing up in the predominantly Catholic neighbourhood of West Belfast. “It was a part of a peaceful revolution for guys like me.”

Like most teenagers in the early '80s, Andi was initially a fan of rock and punk. But while working as a photographer's apprentice, his boss introduced him to the Irish folk music of Christy Moore and the band Planxty.

“Christy Moore was almost a mentor to me, in that I followed his musical path,” said Andi. “It shows in the music I play today.”

So it wasn't long before Andi traded in his two electric guitars for an acoustic model. Soon afterwards, he added a bodhrán (an Irish hand-drum) to his case and started playing small gigs in Belfast.

It was no surprise to his family that Andi pursued a career in music. In the late 1950s, his older brother Gerry played in a band with Van Morrison — not that their mother appreciated it. “One day my ma' kicked Van out of our garage for making too much noise,” Andi recalled with a laugh.

Before coming to Canada, Andi lived in London for three years, working with fellow Irishmen on building sites, and entertaining them in many of the city's Irish pubs in the evenings. “London was a springboard to what I'm doing here now,” he said.

Embraced by Montreal

When Andi first came Montreal on vacation, it wasn't long before he heard Irish music. “The first place I was taken to in Montreal was the Old Dublin Pub,” he said. “I was amazed at these guys who sang with phony Irish accents. I thought to myself, 'I can do this — a whole lot better!'”

So when Andi eventually moved to Montreal, luck was on his side. “New Irish pubs, like McKibbin's and Ye Olde Orchard were opening,” he said. “I arrived at a time when there was a wave of interest in all things Celtic. I was playing gigs five nights a week.”

Over the years, Andi has played all over Eastern Canada and shared a stage with many of his idols, such as Paddy Keenan and Moya Brennan. One of his most memorable performances was at a Mohawk Pow-Wow at Kanesatake, just two years after the Oka crisis. He played the Ewan MacColl song 'Go, Move, Shift', which highlights the discrimination faced by Irish gypsies. “I was backed by a whole bunch of Native drummers playing deerskin and buffalo hide drums,” said Andi. “It was freaky.”

Belfast Andi and the band Swift Years play at The Pub Next Door, 5175 Sherbrooke St. West, every Friday at 7 pm. He can also be seen on Saturday afternoons at Hurley's on Crescent Street, and on Sunday afternoons at The Irish Embassy Pub and McKibbin's Pub, both on Bishop Street.

His website is at www.belfastandi.com