Hellraising Dubliners silenced by prayer

LEGENDARY hellraisers The Dubliners fell unusually silent yesterday when they were upstaged by the Lord’s Prayer.

The veteran folk band are playing two 50th anniversary homecoming concerts in Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral as part of the capital’s annual TradFest.

But the four surviving members were forced to hush during the launch when a lay minister insisted on upholding the church’s traditions of saying noon prayers from the pulpit.

Refusing to make a holy show of themselves, Barney McKenna, John Sheahan, Eamonn Campbell and Patsy Watchorn downed instruments and quietly filed into a pew to bow their heads.

Afterwards, Bernard Woods, lay minister for the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough, joined the band members as he invited attendant public relations managers, concert organisers and journalists to shake hands as a sign of peace.

Bemused fiddler Sheahan welcomed the divine intervention during the rollicking group’s first launch in a church. “Interrupted wouldn’t be the right word,” he said. “Enhanced would be the word. By noon prayers, from the dean himself, in the pulpit.”

Despite the nod from above, the band best known for songs including Seven Drunken Nights, Monto (about Dublin’s now defunct red light district) and Whiskey in the Jar, would not say if their set list would include their version of Hand Me Down My Bible.

Sheahan said the January 27 and 28 shows would be emotional, as they remember Ronnie Drew, Ciaran Bourke and Luke Kelly, who have died since the band formed in the snug of O’Donoghues pub on Merrion Row in 1962.

“It will be something special. From Christ Church to O’Donoghues isn’t too far away — but it’s 50 years away now,” said Sheahan.

It is rumoured that the likes of Sean Keane, Maire Breathnach, Damien Dempsey and Imelda May could join The Dubliners onstage for the shows while the church organ and Dublin Gospel Choir will accompany some songs.

“It should be a nice mood,” said Sheahan. “It will be a typical Dubliners concert with some enhancements.”

The shows are highlights of this year’s TradFest, which will see five days of music in over 20 venues in Temple Bar from January 25.

English singer-songwriter Ralph McTell, famous for Streets of London and From Clare to Here, is another major draw, as are Michael McGoldrick, Moya Brennan, Frankie Gavin, Tommy Sands and Cathy Jordan.