Stephen Dunford

Stephen Dunford was born in Castlebar, County Mayo. As a teenager Steve was one of the founder members of a traditional music group with Mary Black, with whom he played bodhrán. He got a sensible job in the bank but continued his association with music, playing in sessions on a regular basis.

In 1990 he returned to the entertainment business full time. Since then he has managed, produced and played with some of the country's best known composers and musicians. But his passion has always been history and most especially the history of his own native county. He has written a number of historically based books and The Irish Highwaymen is his first Wolfhound publication. It is a collection of enthralling true stories of the brigands, rapparees and highwaymen of Irish history.

He now lives in the little fishing town of Killala, where he spends a lot of his free time pursuing one of his favourite hobbies – sea angling. He is one of a family of five children (four boys and a girl), two of whom still live in Mayo, in Ballina and Westport respectively.