Fiddle player Paul O'Shaughnessy, first from Dublin's northside, spent much of his youth in Donegal where he developed a love and talent for fiddle playing not only from his mother, Pearl McBride but also from the playing of Antoin MacGabhann and John Doherty. It was here also that he met and played with musicians such as Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh whom he later joined, for a number of years, as a member of the group Altan.