MEMBER of The Dublin Legends, Sean Cannon, is promising an evening of high-spirited Irish folk music when the band comes to the Theatre Royal this May.

Singer and guitarist Sean, 75, who was born and raised in Galway City, plays St Helens on May 8 with the four-piece outfit which picks up where The Dubliners left off after an impressive 50-year life span.

Completing the line-up are Paul Watchorn on guitar and mandola, guitarist Eamonn Campbell and 55-year-old baby of the bunch Gerry O'Connor on banjo, fiddle and mandolin.

Sean and Eamonn were members of The Dubliners for nearly 30 years while Gerry and Paul are newer recruits.

Sean said: "We're doing songs that are known as Dubliners' songs or Dubliners' favourites, but these are really just traditional songs in the Irish repertoire, from before we were born. They have been popularised by The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, The Chieftains, and others in the 1960s and '70s."

He said: "I grew up in Galway City; my father came from Donegal, he played fiddle and he and his colleagues from the post office would gather in our house. There was music, a few pints of the black stuff - I have vivid memories of this.

"My mother was also musical - she was very fond of operatic tenors like John McCormack, the great Irish tenor. She played records on a wind-up gramophone so I was brought up in the midst of first class singing as well."

Of The Dublin Legends, he said: "We get on well and enjoy our music. Paul is the only one who's actually from Dublin! Eamonn is from Drogheda, which is north of Dublin, and Gerry from County Tipperary, like Shane McGowan of The Pogues.

"We play all the lively numbers people expect when they come to these concerts, and a few novelties - comical songs, songs about love and drinking!"

Sean says he was a latecomer to music, first picking up a guitar aged around 21.

He said: "I went to live in Germany and bought myself a guitar and I came back to England when I was 25 when the folk scene was in full swing. I've been been doing it 50 years on and off. It's a way of life.

"We're looking forward to coming to the Theatre Royal, we love playing in this area, the audiences are always up for it.

"We put on a great show - a couple of hours and an encore, with a break for a drink and at the end we come out and meet people, for a chat."

The concert takes place at 7.30pm on Sunday, May 8.

For tickets, visit the box office in Corporation Street or call 756 000.