Ian Gallagher Home Page
Mick Delahunty: Ireland's Glen Miller
1915 Clonmel - R.I.P. 1992 Limerick)
Mick Delahunty and the Mayor of Clonmel Jim Taylor.
Holding mike Jimmy O'Dea (star of "Darby O'Gill)
Mick Delahunty was one of Ireland's first music stars. When asked
in 1958
during his silver jubilee as a bandleader how long he was going
to continue
for he replied: 'As long as I can generate a little fun and as long
as dancers
come to hear me.' By this date Mick Delahunty or 'Mick Del' had
travelled
nine million miles and played to seven million dancers. It is said
that
thousands were prepared to cycle thirty miles and back to a dance
hall where
'the Del' was performing, in an era when cars were scarce.
The heyday of the Mick Delahunty Orchestra, the 1950s, coincided
with the gradual post war modernisation of Ireland. This was set
against a backdrop of external influences. One of these was Hollywood,
films from which were widely viewed in cinemas across Ireland. The big
band had emerged in the US in the 1930/40s with the growing popularity
of jazz. Mick styled his band on the saxophone dominated 'Miller Sound'
of the Glen Miller Orchestra; one of the most acclaimed of these US bands.
With his band he travelled to England to perform on two separate
occasions. In 1959 they toured the States and Canada, the first Irish
band to do so, returning there in 1961. He performed at New Ross, Co. Wexford
during President John F. Kennedy's visit in 1963. Two years later he headed
the entertainment line up at Powerscourt House in honour of Prince Rainier
and Princess Grace of Monaco's visit to Ireland.
By the 1960s the scene was changing. People were looking for a different
type of music: rock and roll. The era of the big band was coming to an
end. However, Mick continued to tour Ireland and perform right up until
his death in the 1992.
Band leader Mick Delahunty
Although he came from a different era to the
Irish showbands, Mick Delahunty
was supportive of the new, younger scene and
helped to launch the career of The Royal Showband,
by letting them open for him.
The heyday of the Mick Delahunty Orchestra
was
in the 40s and 50s, thousands of people would
think nothing of
cycling 30 miles and back to a dancehall where
Mick Del was playing.
musicians featured in the orchestra including
the late Saxophonist,
Paddy Rafferty, and pianist and Keyboard maestro,
Bernie Flanagan who is still one of the best
in the land.
The story of Mick Delahunty as a bandleader
began on Easter Sunday night
1933 when he led his 6 piece band on to the
stage at the Abbey Hall, Cahir,
Co. Tipperary to play for an Old IRA commemoration
dance. It was called the
Harmony Band and on stage that night with
him were Mickey Fennessey, Violin,
his brother Frank on Piano, Christy O'Riordan,
Sax, his brother James on
Trumpet and Willie Power Drums. The admission
price was 3 shillings
including supper. That year Mick Delahunty
bought his new Saxaphone for £14
(pounds) . Some of the faces associated with
Mick Del. Bands of the time
were Danny McNamara, Mary Mullins and Eddie
Roberts (Vocalists)
BillyKenrick, Eileen Sloan, Peter Gaffney,
Karl Weiss, Paddy Byrne, Billy Murphy,
Alex Frieberg, Bennie McNeill who later joined
RTE, and of course his
brothers Paddy Delahunty who played String
Bass and Jackie Delahunty on
Drums. One of the most successful dances ever
held in the Clonmel Collins
Hall was a gala event on Easter Saturday night
1958 to mark the occasion of
Mick Del's 25th Anniversary as a bandleader.
Mick Del was a commanding
figure in dancehalls across the land but his
fame also spread overseas. He
won international acclaim when he took his
fifteen piece orchestra on
English and American tours. He originally
went to London in 1951 for the
well known Bill Fuller organisation, playing
a three week tour in the Irish
clubs and returned there in 1957. His orchestra
also thrilled audiences with
his Glenn Miller sound in Irish clubs in Boston
and New York. In the 60s,
despite the popularity of the new Showbands,
Mick continued to pack in the
crowds for the Dress dances all over Ireland.
His favorites were "In the Mood" and "American
Patrol".
Eventually the cost of employing 15 musicians
became uneconomic,
but he continued playing for social and tennis
club hops
around the Clonmel area to the very end .
After a glorious career that spanned almost
60 years and brought him fame
on both sides of the Atlantic the music finally
stopped on
Feb 2nd 1992 when Ireland s greatest dance
bandleader
collapsed and died shortly after his band
s farewell appearance
at the Greenwood Inn, Ardpatrick, Co. Limerick.
He passed peacefully away just after coming
off stage
A supreme showman to the end.
Reprinted from the book "Faces & Places
Clonmel 1955-'60"
By Justin Nelson
With Permission
Audio
Mick Del Intro
Mick Del Goodbye
From the collection of "Justin
Nelson"
Justin's Home Page
Brendan Ward – A Long Long Way from Tipperary
Around 1950 a brilliant young classical musician called Brendan Ward
from Foxford joined the
Mick Delahunty Band as lead tenor sax.
A graduate of Professor William O’Shaugnessy at Foxford Music
School,he had long
entertained the ambition to arrange for a big band along the lines
of Glen Miller.
Playing with the Castlebar-based Stephen Garvey band in the
late forties
he found this impossible as the instrumentation simply wasn’t
there.
“It was six-piece outfit and you need more musicians to get a big-band
sound,”
he recalls. “Mick’s twelve piece band with five saxes was
the real thing.”
Brendan remembers the first time playing with Mick Delahunty in
the
Mansion House in Dublin. “We played a piece that I had arranged
called
‘Love’s Roses’. It was one of those nights when everything
went perfectly.
Since most of the Dublin dances ended at midnight at the time, and
we were
playing until 2.00 a.m, a lot of the Dublin band leaders came by
to hear us and were
all very complimentary of our sound.”
In the following years Brendan wrote a lot of arrangements for the
band in what
Mick termed ‘the true Glen Miller style’ before leaving for
America in 1955.
In New York the big band era was winding down but Brendan
was introduced
to the legendary Dorsey brothers, Tommy and Jimmy,
and to Les Browne who was in Hollywood at the time.
The Dorseys were Irish Americans from Pennsylvania and Brendan
got to know them – and their mother Tess – very well. “
The Dorseys were playing at the Sacramento Hotel at the time and
I
used to go there to hear them”, he remembers.
Soon he was being asked to orchestrate for the Dorsey Brothers Band
and invited to play with them on a number of occasions.
Other doors started to open too and within a few months he was invited
to become
band leader at the City Center Ballroom.
This provided him with the freedom at last to arrange for his own
band.
“The musicians who used to play in the big bands were all looking
for work so I
was able to hire some of the best in the business”, he remembers.
“Men who had played with the Dorseys and even Glen Miller.
Stephen Madrick, my Alto player, played with Les Browne and was
his lead Alto for seven years.
I also had Dick Bagney who had played with some of the biggest
bands in the country, and Gerry Sanfeno who was one of the
finest
lead Alto Sax players in America.
He is on recordings with people like Frank Sinatra.”
The Brendan Ward orchestra became a big draw for the New York Irish
American
community and increasingly in demand for lavish society weddings
in hotels like the
Roosevelt, the Plaza, the Hilton and the Pennsylvania.
A visit from Mick Delahunty in the late Fifties elicited a
singular tribute:
“Brendan – I’d give anything to have a band like yours!”
Brendan with his wife, Breege (April 2006).
The Snowy Breasted Pearl
Track from Brendan Ward CD
