| Ronnie Drew - A Chat in dublinese
 Ronnie
In 1995 Ronnie Drew left the Dubliners - it was his steady job for over
thirty years. He's back with them now, but will be resuming his own career
on the completion of the current tour. That career has included his highly
successful one man show Ronnie I Hardly Knew Ya, his spell with a rock band
which resulted in the critically acclaimed CD Dirty Rotten Shame (if you
haven't got a copy go out and buy one now - don't even bother finishing
this article), a tour with Eleanor Shanley, and a spot of acting.
Ronnie’s thespian activities, apart from RTÉ voiceovers, have most memorably
included him playing the part of a skipper of a Donegal fishing smack in
the BBC’s Ambassador. The Dubliner apprehends the crew of a British navy
frigate, saying “I’m arresting youse for piracy in Irish waters!” Regrettably
Barney McKenna didn’t emerge from the wheelhouse to whack the British naval
officer round the head with his banjo, but it was a significant television
moment nonetheless.
Ronnie has spent a lifetime in Irish music, and if your drinking buddies
were poet Patrick Kavanagh and writer Brendan Behan, then inevitably you
have a tale or two to tell. Like the one about Stephen Behan’s new house
in Crumlin. Stephen, Brendan’s da, was moved from the Liberties (unwillingly)
to a new house in Crumlin - “out in the middle of the bloody country” as
he described it to Ronnie. They had a piece of land which the redoubtable
Kathleen Behan wanted her husband to turn into a beautiful garden. To that
end she had a load of manure delivered for the soil - provoking the predictable
complaint from Stephen, “....spending good drinking money on shite!” After
some considerable thought however, Behan senior worked out how to get the
land dug over with minimal effort. He duly made an anonymous phone call
to the special branch. “C’mere lads,” he whispered into the phone, “I know
where there’s a whole load of IRA guns....they’re buried in the new garden
belonging to that bollix Stephen Behan...”
It’s perhaps Ronnie’s life-history which has made him such a wonderful
singer of Irish songs. His interpretations are virtually unique: The Captains
And The Kings, Behan’s bitter song heralding the end of the Empire never
sounds more poignant than when Ronnie brings his growling bass voice to
it. McAlpine’s Fusiliers, dedicated to “the Irish builders who made England
a fit place for Irish people to live in” is given a passionate treatment
which brings the grinding lives of those men vividly alive.
Ronnie does songs such as these full justice - but then he is the possessor
of one of the most distinctive voices in the entire history of folk music.
On the other hand, as he will readily admit himself, although more than
competent on the guitar, he is no Segovia.
Ronnie once made the mistake of telling poet Paddy Kavanagh this very
fact. In order to finance his other literary efforts (Raglan Road, Tarry
Flynn etc.) Paddy would write an occasional column in one of the Dublin
newspapers - he even interviewed the Beatles once - and promised Ronnie
a bit of a write-up. At the ‘interview’ in McDaid’s public house Ronnie,
being a fairly easy-going sort of guy, told Paddy he wasn't exactly a classical
guitarist; nor indeed was he a trained singer or anything like that....
When Patrick Kavanagh’s article duly appeared it was headlined, “Drew
deceives the public” and continued, “Ronnie Drew is fooling the people -
he can neither sing nor play guitar - by his own admission.” Relations between
the pair were somewhat strained after that.
Well, despite Paddy Kavanagh's damning newspaper report we know that
Ronnie Drew can both sing and play - and then some. There is nobody with
an interest in Irish music today who hasn't heard his rich, pebble- dashed
voice and not been affected by it.
His place in musical history is secure: Ronnie, almost single-handedly,
brought Dublin into the loop of traditional music revival in Ireland and
in the process made street ballads a valid part of Irish culture. But these
academic thoughts will be far from most audience’s mind when Ronnie cuts
loose on Biddy Mulligan or Dicey Riley. His iron-on-gravel voice has grown
in richness over the years, the pitch is still perfect, and the diction
flawless. Quite simply, the Drew is a superb artist, a first class entertainer.
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