By Elliott West
“Weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs… that’s what I loved about Ronnie Drew’s voice and spirit. Music to inspire, to console… an optimism that was contagious… that’s what U2 took from The Dubliners.”
Bono
Introduction
Since my teenage years, I have always had a love for Irish folk music and have always wondered where this love that fills my heart with joy and often makes me cry, comes from. Having researched my family tree, I found that my maternal Great Grandfather originally came from Macroom in Cork and went on to settle in South Wales. I suppose with the surname Reardon, that gives the game away. I digress, going back to Irish folk music which I had previously wrongly thought as being old-fashioned and for a more mature listener, I came across some Dubliners’ songs and I became frankly hooked and blown away.
The Craic
To discover what was and still is so great about this Irish group, you have to go back to the beginning. The Dubliners began life as The Ronnie Drew Group in 1962 with members Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna and Ciarán Bourke. Along with the instantly recognisable, Ronnie Drew, they would play in the intimate atmosphere of O’Donoghue’s pub. A group of singers and musicians lit up a room and rekindled the Irish songs of yesteryear, giving them a modern-day makeover.
The Journey and Members
Ciarán Bourke
Changing their name to The Dubliners, the band performed in Dublin in what became to be recognised as the first folk concert of its kind in Ireland. Joined by John Sheehan in 1964, this highly talented force would be the heartbeat of Irish traditional music for many a year, pulling rank when he tragically lost Ciarán Bourke as a member to a brain aneurysm in 1974. He recovered and performed occasionally with his pals until his early passing after a long illness in 1988, aged only 53.
Luke Kelly
Luke Kelly, the man who was the voice of The Dubliners for several decades would also part this world far too early. With a voice that made fans by the drove, unkempt with ginger hair and a beard that personified the raggedness of the music, Kelly was a generous band member who let all of the group shine and showcase their talents wherever they performed, on television or the various bars, clubs and music halls across Europe and America. A character who had been shot in the lung during the 1914 Batchelor’s Walk Massacre, survives despite being given little hope of living at the time.
A former steel fixer, Luke was inspired by the likes of Fats Domino, Al Jolson, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra to start singing and quickly learned how to play the banjo, memorising songs of his youth and giving them a political spin. As Ronnie Drew would later say, “he learned to sing with perfect diction” and despite leaving the group for two years in 1964, performed with his friends until he couldn’t anymore. A voice that is encapsulated in the song The Black Velvet Band. Following a diagnosis of a brain tumour which led to forgetfulness and fatigue and several operations, Kelly passed away in 1984. A linchpin of the band, his memory survives to this day in the music of the present members.
Grumpy but Glorious
Ronnie Drew
With more gravel in his voice than a cement mixer, Ronnie looked like someone you could have a fun night within an Irish snug. Often looking bleary-eyed and worse for wear, Ronnie didn’t pull any punches when he sang. He gave it everything he had in every performance from the early black white days of traditional music on a crackling television set to his multitude of performances on shows such as Top of the Pops, the Late Late Show on RTE with Gay Byrne a collaboration with the Pogues of The Irish Rover. Respected and revered, Drew would rub shoulders with the likes of The Rolling Stones and became the inspiration of groups such as U2 and vocal artists such as Sinead O’Connor.
Performing instantly recognisable songs such as Seven Drunken Nights, Donegal Danny, McAlpines Fusiliers and Dirty Old Town, Drew would become the backbone of the group after Luke’s passing and despite several breaks to pursue a solo career, Ronnie would always return to this special Irish clan until throat cancer took him away from us in 2008.
The Legacy
The Dubliners finally retired in 2012 after fifty years in the music business. Music that spanned history and decades, loved by a multitude of devoted fans across the world and a group that sold out music halls. Their music makes your toe tap and emblazons their lyrics in your memory bank. Whether you are melancholy or happy, their back catalogue can also provide a song for you. Rough-edged but finely tuned, this fantastic music with equally delectable lyrics is music from the gods. Washed down with a pint of the black stuff, it works on every level and transports you back to a day when life was hard but softened by the precious time spent away from the grind.
The Dubliners have reinvented themselves just as many times as Fleetwood Mac. Despite the odd wrangle and cross word, they never clashed on stage and fed off each other’s brilliance. Their music was Irish folk in a can mixing traditional music with an alternative take on the air of rock and roll. With their hits still playing on some radio station or television channel somewhere in the world, their legacy remains very much alive and will go down in history as one where the mould was broken at birth. Unique and untamed, The Dubliners never had a written contract in their entire career and managed their own receipts’ money. Whether crackling on an old 45 or 78 or crystal clear on CD, their music continues to inspire others and attract a whole new generation of fans.
