Though born and trained in New York, Brady spent the majority of his life in Ireland. After having served in World War II with the US Navy, Brady spent his evenings at night classes drawing. Brady enrolled in the Art Students League of New York for a year and continued to practise his technique while supporting himself working in hotels and as a guard for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although Brady gained notice in his first solo exhibition with Urban Gallery in 1955, he did not feel at home in New York and left the Big Apple for Ireland. Poverty in Ireland forced Brady to paint small intimate paintings, but this was to his advantage as it developed his style. Brady had always hoped that his artwork would appeal to the ‘everyday’ person, paintings to be hung in a bedroom or a living room.