Ronnie Drew passed on this Saturday aged 73. As a tribute I'll be playing some of Ronnie's favourites in the playlist.
Ronnie Drew was born at Dún Laoghaire on September 16 1934 and was educated by the Christian Brothers. On leaving school at 17 he was apprenticed to an electrician, and later worked as a draper's assistant, vacuum cleaner salesman and night telephonist. In 1955 he went to Spain to teach English, taking the opportunity to learn to play flamenco guitar.
Returning to Ireland, Drew began singing in stage shows at the Gate Theatre and was joined by Barney McKenna on tenor banjo. Drew and McKenna hosted informal sessions in a Dublin pub, and with Luke Kelly (vocals and five-string banjo) formed the nucleus of the Dubliners. The original line-up was completed by the arrival of John Sheehan (fiddle) and Ciaran Bourke (vocals and tin whistle).
Initially known as the Ronnie Drew Group, they adopted the name the Dubliners after the book by James Joyce. They had their first chart hit in 1967 with Seven Drunken Nights, sung by Drew, who got the song from the renowned sean-nós singer, Seosamh Ó hÉanaigh. When it was released it was banned by Radio Éireann – Ó hÉanaigh's version in Gaelic incurred no sanction.
The pirate station Radio Caroline plugged the record relentlessly, helping to propel it into the Top Ten, and the Dubliners were invited to appear on Top of The Pops.
On the record Drew sang of only five nights, claiming that he would be jailed were he to sing the song in full. This was all grist to the publicity mill, and paved the way for the Dubliners' second chart hit, Black Velvet Band, with Luke Kelly on vocals.
On St Patrick's Day 1968 they launched their first American tour with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1969 they topped the bill in a "pop prom" at the Royal Albert Hall, supported by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, and the Young Tradition.
The Dubliners went from strength to strength, but in the 1980s two of the original members, Luke Kelly and Ciaran Bourke, died. The group recovered from the blow, joining forces with the Pogues in 1988 to record a rousing version of The Irish Rover, featuring Drew and Shane McGowan on vocals; it became a hit.
Drew had left the Dubliners in 1974 to pursue a solo career, but returned 10 years later and finally departed for good in 1996. As a solo artist he devised a show, Ronnie I Hardly Knew Ya, and, accompanied by Mike Hanrahan on guitar, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1998. He later took the show to the United States, Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Israel.
The show, a mixture of song and story, was based on the writings of Brendan Behan, James Joyce, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis McNeice and Sean O'Casey as well as on Drew's experience of Dublin and its many characters.
Drew enjoyed acting, and in the 1960s appeared in a series of ballad shows and entertainments. In the 1970s he had parts in Richard's Cork Leg, by Brendan Behan, which was staged at the Royal Court, and in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
He was a keen horseman and rode at every available opportunity. Two of his horses carried off prizes at the Dublin Horse Show, and his horsemanship was further acknowledged when he was made an honorary member of the mounted section of the New York Police Department. Dublin honoured him in 2006 when he was chosen to be Grand Marshal of the city's St Patrick's Day parade.
Drew saw himself as a journeyman singer, refusing to be tied to one particular genre. Accordingly he collaborated with artists such as Antonio Breschi, Rory Gallagher and Jah Wobble. For his 1995 album Dirty Rotten Shame he recorded songs specially written for him by Bono, Elvis Costello and Shane McGowan.
His album with Eleanor Shanley, El Amor de mi Vida (2006), features songs by Nick Cave, Neil Young and Tom Waits. Drew particularly enjoyed his duet with Shanley on The Good Old Days, by Eels: "It's saying 'everything's not perfect, but we'll get on with it'. We're not all Sharon Stone and George Clooney. We're not all millionaires. Life isn't like that. It's a reminder that life can be good, if you make the effort."
Last year he released Pearls, an album with Grand Canal.
Drew had been suffering from throat cancer, and earlier this year a group of musicians, including Bono, Christy Moore, Shane MacGowan and Sinead O'Connor, released The Ballad of Ronnie Drew, with all profits from the single going to the Irish Cancer Society.
