The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) is committed to providing free, universal access to the rich cultural tradition of Irish music, song and dance. If you’re able, we’d love for you to consider a donation. Any level of support will help us preserve and grow this tradition for future generations.
Bronx-born son of Irish immigrants, writer and musician Terence Patrick Winch was named one of “The Top 100 Irish Americans” by Irish America magazine in 1992. His 10 books of poems include Irish Musicians/American Friends (1985), which won an American Book Award. That Special Place: New World Irish Stories (2004) is a collection of non-fiction pieces centering around his life in Irish music, primarily with the original Celtic Thunder, the band he founded with his brother Jesse in 1977 and in which he played the D/C# button accordion and tenor banjo. In 2007, he released a CD compilation of his Irish compositions called When New York was Irish, named after his best-known song, and in 2017 he collaborated with his son Michael and brother Jesse on a CD called This day too: music from Irish America. In 2023, he produced Celtic Thunder Live in Concert and wrote the title song for The Winch Family Band’s album, The Irish Riviera. Highly respected as a writer and musician, in March 2000 the Washingtonian ran his extensive piece on the history of the Irish in Washington. Terence maintains close ties with his relatives in counties Galway and Clare.
