The Dubliners
In 1961 there was a ballad boom in waiting in Ireland. The Abbey Tavern sessions in Howth were the forerunner to sessions in the Hollybrook, Clontarf, the International Bar and the Grafton Cinema. Luke Kelly returned to Dublin in 1962. O'Donoghue's Pub was already established as a session house and soon Luke was singing with, among others, Ronnie Drew and Barney McKenna. Other early people playing at O'Donoghues included The Fureys, father and sons; John Keenan and Sean Og McKenna; Johnny Moynihan and Mairtin Byrnes.
A concert John Molloy organized in the Hibernian Hotel led to his Ballad Tour of Ireland with the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group. (Billed in one town as the Ronnie Drew Ballet Group). The success trail led to the Abbey Tavern and the Royal Marine Hotel and then to jam-packed sessions in the Embankment, Tallaght. Ciaran Bourke joined the group, followed later by John Sheahan. They renamed themselves The Dubliners at Luke's suggestion, as he was reading James Joyce's book of short stories, entitled Dubliners, at the time.
In 1964 Luke Kelly left the group for nearly two years and was replaced by Bobby Lynch and John Sheahan. Luke went with Deirdre O'Connell, founder of the Focus Theatre, whom he was to marry the following year, he went back to London and became involved in Ewan MacColl's "gathering". The Critics, as it was called, was formed to explore folk traditions and help young singers. Luke Kelly greatly admired MacColl and saw his time with The Critics as an apprenticeship. "It functioned as a kind of self-help group to develop each other's potential," said Peggy Seeger. In 1965, he sung 'The Rocky Road to Dublin' with Liam Clancy in his first, self-titled solo album.
Bobby Lynch left The Dubliners, while John didn't. Luke rejoined, and he started singing with Ronnie, Barney, Ciaran and John. They recorded an album in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, played the Cambridge Folk Festival and recorded Irish Night Out, a live album with, among other, exiles Margaret Barry, Michael Gorman and Jimmy Powers. They also played a concert in the National Stadium in Dublin with, to Luke's delight, Pete Seeger as special guest. They were on the road to success: Top Twenty hits with "Seven Drunken Nights" and "The Black Velvet Band", The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 and a tour of New Zealand and Australia. The ballad boom in Ireland was becoming increasingly commercialized with publicans building even larger venues for pay-in performances. Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger on a visit to Dublin expressed concern to Luke about his drinking.
Christy Moore became a friend after they met in 1967. During his Planxty days he got to know Luke particularly well. "Mind you at that time I think his best singing days were over. I think Luke ran out of steam in The Dubliners as a singer. I've heard tapes of him singing as a younger man and he was wonderful" Luke took to the stage, surprising many with his performance as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. In 1972 The Dubliners themselves performed in Richard's Corkstone Leg, based on the "incomplete works" of Brendan Behan.
The arrival of a new manager for The Dubliners, Derry composer Phil Coulter, resulted in a collaboration that produced two of Luke's most notable performances: “The Town I Loved So Well”, "Hand me Down my Bible", and “Scorn Not His Simplicity”, a song about Phil's son who was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. Luke had such respect for the song that he only performed it once for a television recording and rarely, if ever, sang it at the Dubliners' often boisterous events.
His interpretations of “On Raglan Road” and “Scorn Not His Simplicity” were significant musical achievements and became points of reference in Irish folk music. His version of “Raglan Road” came about when the poem's author, Patrick Kavanagh, heard him singing in a pub in Dublin city then called the Bailey, and approached him to say that he should sing the poem (which is set to the tune of “The Dawning of the Day”). Kelly 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", "Joe Hill", "The Button Pusher", "Alabama 1958" and "God Save Ireland" all being examples of his concerns). In the socially and politically conservative atmosphere in Ireland at the time, this was notable.
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