The band started in 1989 when friends Richard Restivo and Patrick Michael Karnahan met on the set of "Back to the Future 3". Both members were cast in the Hill Valley Band. future band member, Steve McArtur, was also in the movie with speaking lines.
The Black Irish Band has gained much national attention over their 22-year history. In 2005, the band was hired by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and performed at the National Mall and Kennedy Center. In 2000 the band headlined at the International Music Festival in Singapore. The band also was the featured performers for the 100th Anniversaries of the Alaskan Gold Rush and White Pass & Yukon Railroad. The band has also been a favorite of the most popular daytime television shows in the area, “Good Day Sacramento”, appearing a total of seven times and seen by millions of Californians.
The band has performed at some of the largest museums in the American West. The band has been featured at the Museum of Alaska, Utah’s Golden Spike National Historic Site, the Gene Autry “Museum of the West”, Montana’s “Museum of the Rockies”, the Los Angels, San Diego, and San Francisco Maritime Museums, and the California State Railroad Museum.
