THE hardest part about writing this article is distinguishing between Irish folk and traditional music.
Although I may commit a sin here, I have to make decisions.
Therefore, I am thinking along the lines of the Dubliners, the Dublin City Ramblers, The Clancys, the Fureys and the Wolfe Tones as the folk groups who have done most for Irish music.
Traditional and modern mixtures have also put Irish music on the map, and I will look at traditional groups and modern song and dance in the near future, so bear with me, please.
Way out in front on the folk scene are the Dubliners. And the late Ronnie Drew described the early years: “Sessions were rare enough around Dublin, and O’Donoghue’s pub in Merrion Row was a watering hole with its own unique history, being in business since 1789. It was a quiet place, where civil servants would sneak in for a quick one or whatever. Coming up to Christmas 1962, we approached Paddy O’Donoghue to see if we could play a few tunes and that was it.”
This started a trend at O’Donoghue’s that continues to this day, where fine local musicians continue to belt out the tunes in what is now probably Dublin’s most famous music pub.
The Dubliners started life as the Ronnie Drew Group. The man responsible for their formation had learned how to play the guitar while living in Spain and, on his return, started to play in sessions around the city.
Their first major break came when they began playing the Abbey Tavern in Howth every Saturday night.
After a few weeks, Ronnie felt more money was being taken on the door than what the group were being paid, so he went across the road to the Royal Hotel and enquired about playing there instead, and the offer was quickly accepted.
Meanwhile, Luke Kelly was reading James Joyce’s Dubliners, and with Ronnie uncomfortable with the group’s original moniker, it was agreed that Dubliners was would be their name.
The group played The Embankment pub on the Tallaght-Blessington Road every Monday night. This led to what would become known as the cabaret scene. Ronnie described these kind of venues as “a big-room in a pub.”
In 1963, John Sheridan was appointed manager. They played the Edinburgh Festival, which was broadcast by the BBC, and this led to Transatlantic Records boss Nathan Joseph approaching them with a view to making an album. In 1964, The Dubliners with Luke Kelly was released on the Transatlantic label.
The group had many changes in personnel over the years.
The best-known line-up would have been Ronnie Drew, Barney McKenna, Luke Kelly, John Sheehan and Ciarán Bourke, who were together from the early days right up to 1974 when Ronnie decided to leave. He returned in 1979.
Luke Kelly was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1980 and died on 30 January 1984.
All were musically talented and, with the exception of John, all of them sang. Ciarán Bourke suffered a brain haemorrhage, collapsing on stage in 1974, while a second one left him paralysed on the left side.
He died in 1988. Another deceased member, Bobby Lynch, who joined when Luke left for a short time in 1964-65, took his own life in 1982.
Ronnie, sometimes referred to as the last king of Ireland, died on 16 August 2008 from throat cancer after a three-year battle with the disease. Jim McCann and Paddy Reilly are other former members. John and Barney are still there, with Seán Cannon, who joined in 1982. Eamon Campbell and Patsy Watchorn make up the present band.
Seven Drunken Nights was released on the new Major Minor label on St Patrick’s Day 1967 and, although banned by RTÉ, was played extensively on the pirate station Radio Caroline. It was picked up by the BBC and reached number five in the British charts, selling a quarter of a million copies.
They became regulars on Top of the Pops, and charted again with the Black Velvet Band. Between original recordings and compilations, they have produced 53 albums, of which Finnegan’s Wake is generally regarded as the best. They never quiet made the impact they had hoped for in the US but were still popular, as they were in many other countries around the world.
The Dubliners would be classed as having international appeal, while sticking to their roots as well.
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, on the other hand, would have pushed Irish songs to a high-profile level in the United States, which was very much their base, thought they toured Ireland extensively. We have featured the Clancys in a previous article so we will move on.
The Wolfe Tones would be into the rebel end of the folk scene, with some of their biggest hits having a rebel element such as A Nation Once Again, God Save Ireland, On The One Road, Seán South and Come Out You Black And Tans, however, not all their material fits in this category, with The Vale Of Avoca, Some Say The Devil is Dead and Flower of Scotland more mainstream.
The group evolved when brothers Brian and Derek Warfield got together with neighbour Noel Nagle in 1963 and christened themselves The Wolfe Tones in honour of the rebel leader of that name.
They were joined by Tommy Byrne from Elphin, County Roscommon in 1964. There is no doubt that the lively style of delivery by the Wolfe Tones made them one of the biggest attractions on the Irish and international scene, even competing with the showbands. They were hugely popular.
A contract signed with an American company by leader Derek Warfield was misinterpreted by the group and forbade them recording and, hard as they tried, they were unable to reverse that decision. Derek left the band in 2001 and recently formed the Young Wolfe Tones.
The remaining three members continue on the road. The Wolfe Tones released 29 albums in total, 16 studio and three live recordings, with ten compilations.
And they had many hits with their singles and EPs. In a 2002 BBC World Service poll, their version of A Nation Once Again was voted number one, a fantastic achievement.
They would have been far more popular and enjoyed more success in America than, let’s say, the Dubliners.
The Dublin City Ramblers are another Irish folk group which started in the mid-60s as the Jolly Tinkers. There were a few other groups bearing that name, so they became the Quare Fellas.
The original line-up was the McGuinness brothers (Seán and Matt, Pat Cummins and Patsy Watchorn), whose unusual gravelly voice gave them a different sound, which greatly contributed to their success.
In 1970, with the demise of the Quare Fellows, Patsy Watchorn and Seán McGuinness were joined by Mick Crotty and Kevin Gerahty to form the Dublin City Ramblers.
This line-up stayed together until 1972, when both Crotty and Gerahty left to be replaced by fiddle player Kevin McCaffrey and Kevin Molloy on guitar and vocals.
This line-up would be the most successful and they remain together until 1987. In ’72, they released their album A Nation Once Again, which was a big seller.
Their controversial 1978 album Irish Republican Jail Songs was not received very well by the political fraternity, as it included songs like Over The Wall and 19 Men, referring to jailbreaks by the IRA, both north and south of the border.
This was the Ramblers’ most successful period, with eight big-selling albums. They were very well received when they toured America and Australia. They also had a very busy schedule at home and in Britain.
Some of their most successful songs include The Ferryman, Ringsend Rose, The Punch and Judy Man and Dublin in the Rare Old Times, and they had a big hit with their 1990 World Cup song Que Sera Sera. Patsy Watchorn left the group in 1995, and there have been many comings and goings since, with Seán McGuinness still at the helm.
The Fureys were formed in 1978 by brothers Finbar, Eddie, Paul and George from Ballyfermot, and they would later add Davy Arthur to the name. Finbar and Eddie were touring as a duo, winning best record of the year in 1972, while Paul was a member of a band called The Buskers, which also featured Davy Arthur, along with Brendan Leeson. Finbar and Eddie replaced Tommy Makem when he left the Clancys in 1969 and spent three years touring with them.
They first performed as the Furey Brothers and Davy Arthur on a tour of Germany in 1974 when accompanied by their father Ted, himself a renowned fiddler, who had released a solo album called Toss the Feathers the previous year. When You Were Sweet Sixteen, released in 1981, was their greatest hit and gained them international recognition, charting at number one in Ireland, nine in Australia and 14 in Britain.
The Green Fields of France was also number one in Ireland and stayed in the charts for 28 weeks.
Their albums Golden Days and At the End of the Day were in the top 40 in Britain. In 1997, Finbar quit the group to follow a solo career, while Paul died in 2002 from bowel cancer.
George and Eddie have formed a new Fureys band and continue to tour.
There will be some debate among folk fans about this article.
Perhaps when I do traditional groups, it may settle some arguments, but I feel that those featured have contributed immensely to the international appeal of Irish music.