Merseyside ( /ˈmɜrzisaɪd/) is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, takes its name from the River Mersey.

Merseyside spans 249 square miles (645 km²) of land which border Lancashire (to the north-east), Greater Manchester (to the east), and Cheshire (to the south and south-west); the Irish Sea is to the west. North Wales is across the Dee Estuary. There is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Merseyside, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. It has a focused central business district, formed by Liverpool City Centre, but Merseyside is also a polycentric county with five metropolitan districts, each of which has at least one major town centre and outlying suburbs. The Liverpool Urban Area is the seventh most populous conurbation in the UK, and dominates the geographic centre of the county, while the smaller Birkenhead Urban Area dominates the Wirral Peninsula in the south.

Timothy Filiga "Tim" Cahill (born 6 December 1979) is an Australian football (soccer) player who plays for Everton and the Australian national football team. Cahill plays as an attacking midfielder, but has also played as a striker on several occasions and captains Everton in Phil Neville's absence. Cahill has become one of the highest profile footballers in the Asian Football Confederation. He scored the first goal by an Australian at a World Cup, and has also scored the most goals by any Australian in the World Cup. In 2007, he also became the first Australian player to score at an Asian Cup. Cahill is known for his adept heading ability, remarkable leap despite his height, and scoring the majority of his goals with his head. He has also won 55 caps, scoring 24 goals for his country.

Cahill was born in Sydney, Australia to a Samoan mother and an English father of Irish descent and was encouraged to play football as a child. As a youngster Cahill played football for Balmain Police Boys Club, the Marrickville Red Devils Soccer Football Club and Plumpton/Oakhurst Soccer Club. He attended Bexley North Public School, Tempe High School and Kingsgrove North High School.

James "Jimmy" Conrad (born February 12, 1977, in Arcadia, California) is a retired American soccer defender who last played for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer. During his 13 year MLS career, he was four-time MLS Best XI and the 2005 MLS Defender of the Year. He also earned 27 caps with the United States men's national soccer team and went to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Conrad attended Temple City High School in Temple City, California and was a four-year letterman in soccer. Conrad played at San Diego State University in 1994 and 1995, and then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles. While playing for UCLA, he was a member of the 1997 NCAA Championship team.

Undrafted by MLS, Conrad had an unsuccessful trial with the Los Angeles Galaxy. However, the Galaxy coaching staff recommended he play for one of their affiliated lower division teams. Consequently, Conrad contacted the now-defunct San Diego Flash of the A-League which gave him a contract. In 1999, Brian Quinn became the head coach of the San Jose Clash. When Quinn began searching for an additional defender and goalkeeper for the Clash, Ralf Wilhelms, head coach of the Flash and a former teammate of Quinn on the San Diego Sockers, recommended Conrad and Flash goalkeeper Joe Cannon. The Clash signed Conrad that year. He played with the club, later re-branded as the Earthquakes, for four seasons, helping them to the MLS Cup in 2001. In 2000, he also played for Lech Poznań in Poland.

Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, Paddy on the Road (a minor release of 500, although made available again on CD through his website and at gigs in 2010) was recorded with Dominic Behan (brother of Brendan) in 1969. In 2007, he was named as Ireland's greatest living musician in RTÉ's People of the Year Awards.

Moore was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. He was originally a bank employee who wanted to express himself using traditional music. A bank strike in 1966, which lasted six months (and effectively paralysed Irish commercial life for the duration), resulted in Moore spending considerable time practising music. When the strike ended, Moore had already decided where his passion in life arose, and left the bank for good.

1972 brought his first major release, Prosperous (named after the village of Prosperous, County Kildare, where the album was recorded), which brought together the four musicians who shortly thereafter formed Planxty: Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, and Dónal Lunny. For a time they called themselves "CLAD", an acronym of their names, but soon decided on Planxty.

Declan Sinnott is an Irish musician and producer.

Originally from Wexford, where his family ran a record shop in John Street, he came to Dublin in the late sixties. Around 1970 he was a member of the poetry-and-music group Tara Telephone, in which he composed, sang, and played guitar. He and poet/percussionist Eamon Carr left Tara Telephone to form the Celtic Rock band Horslips, which Declan left after two years.

In the eighties he was a member of Moving Hearts. He then devoted himself to production work with both Mary Black and her sister Frances Black. He has been working with Christy Moore as producer and guitarist for almost 12 years.

It is not uncommon for Sinnott to be asked to sing a song during a Christy Moore concert. At recent concerts Sinnott has performed "Corrina, Corrina" as well as "St. Louis Blues" and "Lord Franklin".

Declan is currently finishing his first solo album