Luke Kelly
Luke Kelly, (
17 November 1940 -
30 January 1984) was an
Irish singer and
folk musician from
Dublin, Ireland, most famous as a member of the band
The Dubliners.
Kelly was one of the best-known figures of the Irish folk
music movement of the
1960s and
1970s. A Dubliner from the north inner city, he attended
O'Connell's Schools before emigrating to
Britain in
1958. There he first became involved in the growing international folk music scene in which
Ewan MacColl was a central figure, as well as joining the
Communist Party of Great Britain.
In
1962 Luke Kelly returned to Dublin and quickly became a central figure in the city's burgeoning folk music community, playing in sessions in
O'Donoghue's Pub on Merrion Row with the likes of
Ronnie Drew,
Barney McKenna and
The Fureys. Not long after, he ended up forming a folk group with Drew, McKenna,
Ciaran Bourke and
John Sheahan, which he named The Dubliners. In
1965, Kelly married the actress
Deirdre O'Connell, one of the founders of the
Focus Theatre.
In the mid-1960s, Luke moved to
England for a while. On returning, he rejoined the Dubliners. His interpretations of "Raglan Road" (a poem by
Patrick Kavanagh) and
Scorn Not His Simplicity were significant musical achievements and became points of reference in Irish folk music. Luke remained a politically engaged musician, and many of the songs he recorded dealt with social issues, the
arms race and
war,
workers' rights and
Irish nationalism, ("The Springhill Disaster", "Second World Song", "When Margaret was Eleven", "Joe Hill", "The Button Pusher", "Alabama 1958" and "
God Save Ireland" all being good examples of his concerns). One of the Dubliners' seminal albums was titled
Revolution. In the socially and politically conservative atmosphere of the
Republic of Ireland at the time, this was notable.
Luke Kelly was diagnosed with a brain tumour in
1980, and died in
1984. He remains a Dublin
icon and his music is widely regarded as one of the city's cultural
treasures.
The Ballybough Bridge in the north inner city of Dublin has been renamed the The Luke Kelly Bridge and in November 2004, the Dublin city council voted unanimously to erect a
bronze statue of Luke Kelly. The location for the statue had not yet been decided upon.
From Dublin streets and roads and down the years:Came great musicians and balladeers :There was a special one, a red haired minstrel boy:And when he passed away, a city mourned its favourite son
All round the markets and down the quays:The sad news it spread to the Liberties :The minstrel boy is gone, he'll sing no more :And Luke somehow we know, we'll never see your likes again
Luke Kelly: a Memoir,
Des Geraghty, ISBN 1-85594-0-906
