He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland and New York City, in the course of which he recorded hundreds of songs.
[2] In 1981, Australian folk historian Warren Fahey brought Heaney to Australia,[3] where he filled the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
In 2007, an Irish-language biography of him titled Seosamh Ó hÉanaí: Nár Fhágha Mé Bás Choíche by Liam Mac Con Iomaire was published.
In 2011, Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man, co-authored by Sean Williams and Lillis Ó Laoire, was published.
The 2011 biography discusses his work in the larger context of Ireland and the United States, and it won the 2012 Alan P. Merriam Prize for best monograph from the Society for Ethnomusicology.