Farewell to a cultural icon and the voice of Dublin

HE may have been described as having a voice like a bullfrog with a hangover, but it was considered the voice of Dublin and made him a cultural icon.

Born in Dun Laoghaire in 1934 the son of a carpenter, the young Drew left school at 17 after which he had a number of jobs including electrician’s apprentice, vacuum cleaner salesman and kitchen porter before heading off to Spain to teach English in the 1950s.

While there his love of music, already a passion, grew and he returned to Dublin where he and Barney McKenna would perform informal sessions at O’Donoghue’s pub on Merrion Row.