…biographical
Patrick "Paddy" Clancy
Born: March 7, 1922, Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, Ireland
Died: November 11, 1998
Group member: 1956-1998
PATRICK CLANCY is an Irish rebel, with a rebel's relish for adventure. He has dark good looks and a daring manner of going to the heart of things straight away. Onstage, Pat Clancy is no less intriguing—his moods of song change as swiftly as his modes of thought, his deep voice flavoring the satirical strains of "Moses" or the tragic lyrics of "The Foggy Dew."
Patrick, one of a family of nine and the oldest of the Clancy Brothers, was the first to wander afield from his native Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary, to such places as England, Canada, Wales, Venezuela and remote points in India. Pat served two years in the R.A.F., a military career neatly balanced by his active membership in the I.R.A. He first came to the United States in the middle 50's. and began his career in the legitimate theatre, first with the Cleveland Playhouse, then to New York for parts in plays by Yeats, O'Casey and Synge—on and off-Broadway.
During this time, recording companies specializing in folk music, such as Eleklra and Folkways, had call for Pat's services editing and arranging Irish songs and he soon found himself in charge of recording sessions. He then scraped together every dollar he could, and launched his own record company under the Tradition label. Pat promptly signed such top folk-singing "names" as Odetta, Josh White, Oscar Brand and Carolyn Hester and soon found himself firmly established in the music business. Despite the full concert schedule of the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. Pat is the proud owner of a large farm in Ireland, breeding cattle and a large herd of dairy cows.
Source: Concert Program - circa 1966
Patrick Clancy, who helped start a folk revival as a founding member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, died on Nov. 11 at his home in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. He was 76.
The cause was cancer, said Bill Haller, his son-in-law.
As the eldest of the Clancy Brothers, Clancy toured the world singing Irish songs, often with thousands of audience members singing along. Although the Clancy Brothers got started as Irish expatriates in New York, where they were part of the Greenwich Village folk revival of the 1950s and '60s, the group's rowdy, good-humored performances created an enduring image of Irish tradition and spurred a rediscovery of folk styles back home in Ireland. Clancy also started a folk-music label, Tradition, that documented Appalachian music, blues, Celtic and ethnic music.
Clancy was born in Carrick, in rural Tipperary, where he and his brothers soaked up traditional music. During World War II he went to England to join the Royal Air Force, and worked as an airplane mechanic in England and India. After the war he and his brother Tom, who had sung pop music in Ireland, came to the United States. They worked at a brewery in Newark, N.J., and sold insurance in Cleveland before moving to New York.
In postwar bohemian Greenwich Village, they acted in and produced off-Broadway plays, including Sean O'Casey's "Plough and Stars" at the Cherry Lane Theater. Joining the scene around the White Horse Tavern, they became friendly with such authors as Dylan Thomas, Delmore Schwartz and James Baldwin, and musicians such as Woody Guthrie.
In the early 1950s, Patrick Clancy assembled Irish music for Folkways Records and the early Elektra label. He started his own label, Tradition, in 1956. His brother Liam arrived in the United States that year, collecting Appalachian songs and also settling in New York. The three brothers began singing Irish songs at parties and quickly developing a local following.
They were joined by another Irish expatriate, Tommy Makem, and started recording for Tradition in 1959. They traveled the folk-club circuit and performed at the Newport folk festivals. A 1961 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" brought them a national following.
In concert, they wore Arran wool sweaters and sang rollicking versions of rebel songs, drinking songs and love songs -- among them "The Jug of Punch" and "Carrickfergus" -- interspersed with tall tales and poetry recitations. Columbia Records signed the group in 1961, and it eventually made about 40 albums.
Patrick Clancy returned to live in Carrick in 1964, and bought a dairy farm. But he continued to perform frequently with his brothers. After 1969, the group's lineup fluctuated, sometimes including a fourth Clancy brother, Robert, and later a nephew, Robbie O'Connell. Patrick Clancy gave his last performance in July in Carrick.
He is survived by his wife, Mary; his brothers Liam and Robert; two sisters, Peg and Joan; five children, Leish, of Philadelphia; Rory, of Carrick; Orla of the Netherlands; Maura, of Carlow, Ireland, and Conor, of Dublin, and three grandchildren.
By Jon Pareles
New York Times