Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the mid-1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and "Galway Joe" Dolan. First line-up Before creating the band in 1966, Irvine, Moynihan and Dolan had met in Dublin and had performed and travelled together, on and off, around Ireland; Irvine and Dolan hitch-hiked together around Europe (Munich, Vienna and Rome) in late 1965. The name 'Sweeney's Men' was inspired by Dolan's reading of Flann O'Brien's comic novel At Swim-Two-Birds, which depicts the mad, anti-religious, tree-leaping pagan King Sweeney of Antrim. The band's manager was Eamonn O'Doherty, and he and the band travelled in a red VW van. The band often travelled to Milltown Malbay to enjoy musical sessions with the piper Willie Clancy. The early days of the band have been described by Irvine in his song "My heart's tonight in Ireland". Second line-up In June 1967, Dolan decided to travel to Israel to fight in the Six-Day War and was replaced by Terry Woods. Woods who played the 12-string guitar, had travelled in the US and studied the American folk tradition brought an American musical influence to the group. At the time, they played the bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, tin whistle, harmonica, concertina and 5-string banjo. This line-up recorded their first full-length album, Sweeney's Men in 1968. The band did not stick to Irish songs exclusively, since all three were big fans of American music and their repertoire included American songs like "Tom Dooley" alongside traditional songs like "Willy O'Winsbury" from the Scottish tradition. Irvine left the band in May 1968, to travel around Eastern Europe. Third line-up Irvine was replaced by Henry McCullough, who had been repatriated to Ireland while on an Eire Apparent tour, owing to visa problems. McCullough played electric guitar, and his tenure saw the band explore more progressive, psychedelic territory. After playing with Sweeney's Men at the Cambridge Folk Festival, McCullough left in July 1968 to join Joe Cocker's Grease Band, and was briefly replaced by Al O'Donnell (born Alastair Noel O'Donnell, 8 December 1943, Harold's Cross, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland, died 3 September 2015, Rathdrum, County Wicklow, Ireland). Final line-up It was as a duo that Woods and Moynihan recorded the band's second, and final, album The Tracks of Sweeney, released in 1969 and including