In the second half of the 19th century about 1.5 million Irish people left their country due to poverty and hunger and moved to the United States. Amongst them was a boy called Sean O'Kelley who moved from a town called Cobh near Cork to Erie, Michigan. He was already a very talented musician and was supposed to be a gifted violin player. More than a century later The Kelly Family called their famous houseboat after their ancestor, who eventually changed his name from O'Kelley to Kelly to make it sound more American.

Many years later, in October 1930, his great-grandson Daniel Jerome Kelly, called Dan, was born in Erie. He grew up in the United States and studied to become a teacher in Latin, Philosophy and Maths, only to drop his profession a few years later to become an antique dealer. But this background would later allow him to teach his children himself while they were travelling through Europe.

In 1957 Dan married his first wife Jenny (Spanish: Juana) and mother of his four oldest children. Their first child Daniel, called Danny, was born in 1961. He was mentally disabled and not much is known about him. In the following three years their children Caroline, Kathy and Paul were born.

When Dan had enough of the American lifestyle it is said that he threw his TV out of the window, took his family and moved to Spain to a small village called Camonal. He started a small antique business and after a while he made enough money to employ people to help with the business and even two young girls from the United States to help with the household and the children.

One of these girls was Barbara Ann Suokko. She was born in Fitchburg, USA, in 1946. Her parents Victor and Barbara Ann were emigrated from Tyrol and Finland respectively. She had already helped Dan with his business before he left the States, and she was about 20 years old when she came to Spain.

It didn't take long 'til she was pregnant. In March 1967 she gave birth to Juan Miguel Suokko - John Michael - and two years later, in November 1969, Maria Patricia was born. All this time Jenny was still living with her family. Only after Patricia's birth she left. It is said that she went back to the United States, and that Caroline went to live with her when the Kellys left Camonal.

On November 6th, 1970 Dan marries his second wife Barbara Ann in New York. When his business became so successful that his life got busy and he had to travel a lot, Dan quit the antique business and tried to start a new living by breeding pigs. Unfortunately he was much less lucky and talented with this new undertaking. Because he didn't know much about it, he had to rely on the people who worked for him. But they tricked him, and supposedly in two years he lost all the money he had earned in the nine years before. The family didn't have any money left and the other people didn't want to lend them anything, because they were still the "outsiders" from America. So the Kellys had to leave Camonal.

The family moved to Belascoain, a tiny village near Pamplona. Although they have made music before - on town festivals and family parties - it was here where they founded their first band, "The Kelly Kids", and performed in a pub run by Dan. The children were sent to musical schools where they were taught to play different instruments. Some of the songs they learned to sing back then they have been playing again many years later, like "Ares Qui". Patricia once said that when she was a little girl she wanted to make music with her family, and her father said she was too young. But he said that if she was able to sing all the songs the Kellys were performing, and if she could play all of them on the guitar, he would allow her to play with them. So little Patricia learned how to play the guitar, which was far too big for her small hands, on her own, and Dan was so impressed he let her play with the others.

It is said that during their journey through Italy their bus was robbed and everything was gone but the Kellys' instruments. So they started making music for money, playing on the streets of Rome, where Kathy's talent for violin playing was discovered. She was invited to get free violin lessons in Vienna, so the whole family went to Austria. There they met Bernhard Paul, founder of Circus Roncalli for the first time. He was so impressed by the Kellys that he let them play regularly during his circus shows.

After a while the family decided to move on and with their double-decker bus they went to Ireland, where Paddy was born. Althrough their roots are in Ireland, Dan didn't like it too much and they went back to the continent soon. When they were performing on the streets of Germany they were discovered by an agent from a record company who was fascinated by them. So they got a contract from Polydor and released two singles - "Danny Boy" and "Who'll Come With Me". Both songs were very successful in Europe, and the Kellys' lives suddenly became very busy. They attended dozens of TV shows, because everyone wanted to see them. Not only in Germany, but also in Belgium and the Netherlands. But things weren't the way Dan had imagined for his family. He felt that they were controlled by the record company and forced to do things they didn't want to, like singing playback in TV shows instead of live. So after three records the contract was ended and Dan was determined to do everything on his own.

The family moved on, back to Spain, where a huge tragedy hit them. Mother Barbara Ann was diagnosed with breast cancer. Not even a year after giving birth to her youngest child, Angelo, in Pamplona, she died, leaving her family devastated and in shock. She was buried in Belascoain her headstone reading:
Barbara Kelly
10.November 1982
Mother Of Fourteen
All With Her Mother
All The Children Of The Whole World

followed by 14 hand-drawn hearts and the names of her children
and a message from Dan:

All My Sufferings Of My Whole Body To Her As A Sacrifice

Barbara's death almost broke down her family, but her last words "Keep On Singing" are legendary and the reason why the Kellys actually kept on singing, with Kathy now taking care of her younger siblings. After a year of recovering they moved to France, where they mainly performed in the Metro. Here it was that Kathy met her future husband Vincent.

A tour through England and especially the United States wasn't as successful as planned, and the Kellys soon came back to Europe. But the influence of American music on their own is undeniable. Back in Germany the Kellys started performing in a tent to be less dependent on the weather. In Amsterdam they bought their legendary houseboat, renovated it and started using it as a permanent home.

Dan's strong ambitions made him set up the first concerts in actual concert halls. It was a huge risk and a lot of work, but in the end it turned out to be a great decision. The Philipshalle in Düsseldorf and the Grugahalle in Essen were booked to capacity, and recordings of these concerts were published on the video "Live". Another concert was filmed for East German TV shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall and was released on video "Live In East Germany" in 1996.

A year later, in 1990, Kathy married Vincent and Dan suffered from a stroke, which left him half paralyzed and bedridden. For the very first time the family had to go on tour without him. From this time on the fame and popularity of the Kellys rose steadily. New albums and videos were produced and released under their own label "Kel-Life" and even their street concerts got bigger and bigger. The houseboat was brought to Cologne, the new home of the Kellys.

After an unfortunate incident, where hundreds on people tried to squeeze into the concert tent, which was only able to hold a small part of that, the Kellys had to realize that their popularity had become a threat to their fans' safety and that they had to change things. They got rid off the tent and played their concerts either on a portable stage on their tour truck or in concert halls. At that time the Kellys played about 400 concerts per year.

1994 was the year of their final breakthrough. If you hadn't heard of the Kellys before - after 1994 you knew them! They played on huge rock festivals with bands like Aerosmith and their album "Over The Hump" sold 4.5 million copies in Europe and stayed in the German charts for two years. The Kellys are everywhere - in the news, on TV and in magazines. In two years they won all important media prizes, including: Bambi, Goldener Löwe, Goldene Europa, VIVA Comet and BRAVO Otto.

They are not only able to fill the Dortmunder Westfalenhalle, a milestone concert released on two videos ("Tough Road, Parts 1 & 2") and the first on stage appearance of Dan after his long illness, but also huge stadiums holding many thousand people. In 1995 their 2-hour-concert on Loreley was broadcasted live on German television and is still one of the fans' all-time favourite concert.

For two years the Kellys toured through Germany non-stop, followed by the media and their fans every step they made. German teeny magazine BRAVO was featuring an article about the Kellys almost every week. To gain back a little bit of their privacy the Kellys built a wall around the where they had anchored their houseboat in the Cologne harbor. The media was all over that, accusing the Kellys of shutting out their fans. But this wasn't the only thing the Kellys had to cope with. Many people had problems with their success, their lifestyle, their music and the way they looked and dressed and tried to cause trouble and make them look bad whenever they could. It seemed that people either loved or hated them. There was nothing inbetween.

It took the Kellys two years to release their next album "Almost Heaven", partly due to the fact that they were scared they couldn't live up to the expectations people had after "Over The Hump". It is said that when the Kellys had finished recording the songs and Dan listened to them for the first time he started crying and said, "Wow, it's almost heaven!" That's how they found the title. This and the following album "Growin' Up" were both very successful as well. Not only Germany had the "Kelly fever", but they also got famous in many other parts of the world, including East Europe and China.

A lot of new rumours appear in the press: Patricia wasn't on stage during the 1996 summer tour because of her sickness. But because the real reason was only revealed years later especially the BILD newspaper started wild speculations. And when the Kellys bought their house in Ireland and moved there for a while to relax and gather new energy, they were accused of leaving their fans in Germany behind, now that they had made enough money from them. And when they came back to Germany and moved into their castle in Gymnich near Cologne the media was mocking them again. It seemed like it didn't even matter what they were doing.

But with their fans they were as popular as they had always been, releasing two new CDs in 1998: "From Their Hearts" and "Live Live Live", a 2-CD-set, which again proved what all fans already knew: the Kelly Family is even better when they perform live. In the same year Jimmy left the family for a short while to study the art of filmmaking in Ireland. On stage the Kellys' cousin Adam took his place. Although the Kellys always said that he is not a "replacement" for Jimmy, a lot of fans didn't really like and accept him and were happy when Jimmy came back. Kathy and Vincent got divorced.

In 1999 the Kellys celebrated their 25th anniversary as a band. Two "Best Of" albums and videos were released, a special TV concert was aired on VIVA and the new tour program was a huge success. But this was also the last tour with all nine original Kellys together on stage. After releasing a solo Best Of album Kathy is left the band with ambitions to start a career as a solo artist and opera singer - and to have more time to spend with her son Sean. John as well left the band because he wasn't happy with how the rest of his siblings saw the future of the band. For a long time the fans had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Barby left the stage, retreating to a more private life to take care of herself and her health. Though she contributed a song to the following album.

In 2000 the Kellys performed on many festivals throughout Germany with a new look and style, and with many new songs. But there were also a lot of changes in their private lives. Joey became a father, Patricia married. The castle in Gymnich was sold, because most Kellys had already moved out into their own apartments, starting their own families.

A year later both Angelo and Patricia became first-time parents as well and John married his childhood love Maite Itoiz in Spain. Maite is a famous Opera singer in her home country and could even be seen at the Kellys' TV "Christmas Special", performing with her father. The Kellys, now consisting of six active band members, are performing in smaller, more intimate halls and clubs.

In 2002 their 15th studio album "La Patata" was released, which was produced in a studio in the south of France and named after one of the Kellys' favourite restaurants. The joy over the huge success of their "comeback" album was followed by even greater grief when Dan Kelly died on the 5th of August after he was hit by his third and fatal stroke. All of his children were at his side when he peacefully passed away. He was buried in Ireland in a private ceremony before a public memorial ceremony was held in Cologne on August 11th.

In the following years more and more Kelly babies were born, more solo projects were started. The Kellys accepted the offer to play at Phantasialand Brühl every weekend for quite a long while before they joined Circus Roncalli again after more than 30 years to tour with them through Germany. Their last studio album so far, "Homerun", was released in 2004 - a 2-CD album with one quieter and one rock CD, again presenting a new style of music, and more mature than ever. In the same year Paddy left the band to study theology and philosophy in a monastry in France, which came as quite a shock for most fans, who are devastated and afraid he is planning to spend the rest of his life as a monk. It is said that his family isn't too happy with his decision either, but they respect it as he seems to be very happy with it.

In the next two seasons the Kellys are joining Circus Roncalli again, because the first tour turned out to be a huge success. Three marriages in 2005 and four new babies in 2006 are just one hint that the Kellys are in fact concentrating on their own lives and own projects right now, but still getting together in a tour this fall and winter in churches throughout Germany.