Cahal Dunne, who has performed before hundreds of audiences, admits he still gets stage fright.

"You never get used to it," he said. "And it's harder to entertain 15 people than it is 500 or 600 people. It's much harder because it's like you're under a larger microscope."

Dunne, an Irish entertainer from the Pittsburgh area, performs in more than 200 shows a year. He is a composer, pianist, comedian, story teller and television personality. Originally from County Cork, Ireland, Dunne started out on the performance path by entering his songs into contests. In 1974 he won first prize in the Castlebar Song contest with his song "Shalom," which was the same year he received his bachelor's degree in music from the University College of Cork.

In 1976 he also represented Ireland in the Yamaha World Song Contest with his song "Lover, Not Just a Wife." But he credits his winning of Ireland's National Song Contest as his biggest break. His winning song "Happy Man" landed him first place and landed his song at the No. 1 spot in Europe and Ireland with record sales topping the 250,000 mark. It also landed him the right to represent Ireland at the International Eurovision Music Contest in Israel.

"'Happy Man' gave me a phenomenal break and my 15 minutes of fame. It went straight to No. 1 and was televised to 5 million people in Jerusalem."

Dunne said his big break unfortunately coincided with the "worst recession Ireland had in the century."

"(The recession) lasted about 15 years and the country really went down. Approximately 350,000 people immigrated throughout the world in the '80s, but mostly to America," he said. "Ireland is booming again, which is great. I came to America and started all over again. You now have to drag me out of this country."

Dunne said each year he makes a two week trip around the country and brings his tour back to Ireland every time.

Dunne will stage two shows at 7:30 p.m. April 12 and 13 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Greenville. His shows will consist of Irish singalongs, storytelling, jokes and songs by such artists as Billy Joel, Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers. The event is being sponsored by the Saint Michael Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.

In addition to touring, he has written many songs and released several CDs. Following the events of Sept. 11 he wrote a new song "The Eagle Has Risen," a salute to the American response to the tragedy. The song is featured on his new album "Songs of Inspiration," released in September and featured in a PBS video called "Thank You America."

Another music project that Dunne participated in was the "One Less Tear" album, which was released in January to help raise money for cancer research. The album has since sold more than 500,000 copies and aims to sell at least 5 million.

Dunne got involved with the project after a friend, Chuck Navasky, of Phillipsburgh, Washington County wanted to do the album. Navasky was diagnosed with throat cancer a few years ago and is now in remission. He came up with the idea to do the album and wanted to include one of Dunne's songs, "An Angel for Sarah."

"He was on his way home from chemo treatment when he got the idea. He wanted to use his connections to raise money," Dunne said

Many celebrities participated on the album, including Olivia Newton-John, Tony Curtis, MC Hammer, Ricochet, and Lynyrd Skynrd's famous brothers, Ronnie and Johnny VanZant.

"The songs are written by people who had cancer or were touched by cancer in some aspect of their life. It's a 'don't give up' album and rather touching actually."

To order it, call (800) 628-2759.

For tickets to the Greenville shows, call (724) 588-1928. Tickets are $12 and seats are reserved.