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Joe was born into a musical family in Geesala, County Mayo.. His grandfather and uncles played accordion and although he had no formal tuition on the instrument he picked it up. There was a lot of music in the locality when he was young and he got great encouragment from older musicians. He was influenced by the playing of Joe Cooley and Tony Mac Mahon, and plays a restored 1940s accordion to give him that same kind of sound.