Remembering Ronnie Drew
16 September 1934 – 16 August 2008
Ronnie Drew, Liam O'Maonlai, Tony McMahon, Barney McKenna and John Shehan
in Wexford prior to their benefit concert for the Nuclear-Free Future Award.
Due to summer's lazy, last-half Datscha rhythm, we learned very late of the passing of our friend Ronnie Drew, who was a founder of the famous Irish folk group, The Dubliners...
Ronnie loved to talk politics but distrusted politicians, and his voice – a particular blend of wind and whiskey, smoke and drizzle (a journalist once described it as "coke [coal] being crushed under a door") – was as much a part of Dublin life as the River Liffey. Ronnie himself, puffing on his cigar and sipping on his Bushmills whiskey, Roja wine or pint of Guinness, the pub blinds drawn after closing, called it a "storytelling kind of voice"...
In 2001 we held our Awards ceremony at the southeastern tip of Ireland, Carnsore Point – famous for being the proposed location of the country's first nuclear power facility. Back in 1978 ("Getting to the Point") and 1979 ("Back to the Point"), a series of free concerts were held there to rally opposition to the Fianna Fail government’s nuclear energy plans. The concerts helped squash the nuclear idea in Ireland, and in 2001 Ronnie returned to add his voice to our all-star Irish line-up, which included his old group, The Dubliners (in the photo above taken in 2001 behind Ronnie you see Liam O'Maonlai, Tony McMahon, Barney McKenna and John Shehan). The performers joined together in celebration of the Irish people's triumph over the plans of their (then) pro-nuclear government.
A number of Ronnie's musician friends, led by Bono of U2, gathered together to honor the man by singing "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" – you can watch it on YouTube.
--Claus Biegert
translated by Craig Reishus
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