[2] His mother, Sarah Makem, was an important source of traditional Irish music, who was visited and recorded by, among others, Diane Guggenheim Hamilton, Jean Ritchie, Peter Kennedy and Sean O'Boyle.

His father, Peter Makem, was a fiddler who also played the bass drum in a local pipe band named "Oliver Plunkett", after a Roman Catholic martyr of the reign of Charles II of England.

Young Tommy Makem, from the age of 8, was a member of the St. Patrick's church choir for 15 years where he sang Gregorian chant and motets.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Makem performed both solo and with Liam Clancy on The Irish Rovers' various television shows, which were filming in Canada and Ireland.

In addition, the after-party for Bob Dylan's legendary 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration at Madison Square Garden in 1992 was held at the Irish Pavilion.

In 1997 he wrote a book, Tommy Makem's Secret Ireland and in 1999 premiered a one-man theatre show, Invasions and Legacies, in New York.

[11] Makem was married to Mary Shanahan, a native of Chicago, for 37 years, and had four children – daughter Katie Makem-Boucher, and sons Shane, Conor and Rory.

[11] The Makems initially moved from New York to Ireland early in their marriage, but returned to the United States to escape the Troubles, settling permanently in Dover, New Hampshire in 1972.

Makem died in Dover on 1 August 2007, following a lengthy battle with lung cancer, and was buried next to his wife at Saint Mary's New Cemetery.

During the fall of the Iron Curtain, Makem often proudly told the story that his song "The Winds Are Singing Freedom" had become a sort of folk anthem among Eastern Europeans seeing a new future opening before them.

[14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] Makem had a forceful and charismatic stage presence – the result of years of public performance, a strong personality and a bard's voice.