Originally posted to Hipbase by super-fan Tthip aka Dana:

Many people here know that a couple of the Hip guys were in a band called The Filters before assembling The Hip.
But what I did not know until today was that Finny McConnell of The Mahones was a member of The Filters with the boys.

http://herenb.canadaeast.com/music/article/1452910

…Finny McConnell of The Mahones was born in Dublin, Ireland. His parents emigrated to Canada when he was a kid, settling in Kingston, where they opened a hotel with two Irish pubs. But when he was fed his first taste of traditional Irish tunes, he spit it back out. McConnell started the band the Filters with his pals Gord Downie and Rob Baker, of Tragically Hip fame, in high school. But the band split when they wrapped up their final school year.

“When they went to university at Queens, I moved to London, England for five years studying rock ‘n’ roll on the streets,” said McConnell. Fuelled by the attitudes of Celtic punk pioneers The Pogues and the Waterboys, McConnell travelled home to Kingston in 1990 and formed The Mahones, originally meant as a one-off punk show for a St. Patrick’s Day party in an Irish pub….