The Blind Dunnes: The buskers who became part of Pana life

“I saw them on the streets of Clones

“At a Fleadh Cheoil long ago

“A white haired man with a fiddle

“His brother had an old banjo.

“They’re blind,” said the woman beside us,

“But by God, them boys can play!”

- “That’s the ‘Swallow’s Tail’’ said my father

“And the music took us all away.”

Chorus:

“And if you stop to listen

“They’re playing for you and I

“And their music sings along the strings

“Between the earth and the sky.

“Between the earth and the sky.”

Those are the opening verses of a beautiful song recorded by Colum Sands immortalising the Dunne brothers who were sons of John and Mary Dunne, of an extended family boasting many famous musicians and singers.

They were one of the great musical families of Ireland, with a heritage stretching back many generations. Not only did they keep the music alive, they also recycled the names through the generations which confused many – first cousins with the same Christian names i.e. “Fiddler” (Michael) Dunne featured on the Late Late Show, and Bernard was introduced on TV playing a box fiddle (made from orange boxes) by a youthful presenter Bill O’Herlihy.

Confining ourselves to the traveller family of John and Mary Dunne; there were, according to son and nephew, renowned uilleann piper Micky Dunne, seven brothers Paddy, Jack, Stephen, Barney, Christy, Michael and Hanta (Joseph). With the exception of Stephen, who died at a young age, these Dunne musicians, stringed-instrument virtuosos all, influenced many of the brightest stars in the present generation of Irish fiddle players.

Paddy, ed best in Limerick, was a great fiddler all of whose sons became musicians – the best known are Mickey and his brother Christy Dunne, the newest set of ‘Dunne Brothers’ who are well known the length and breadth of Ireland and throughout the international festival scene.

Jack, another gifted musician, died a young man at just 42 on his way into Cork city to busk on Christmas Eve 1956 (traditionally a very profitable day) when he was knocked down by a van. The shocked driver took him to the Mercy Hospital where he died. Amazingly, the fiddle he was carrying wasn’t even scratched!

It was Christy, Michael and Joseph (Hanta) who evoke, for thousands of nostalgia seekers, very special memories of their powerful street performances. You would hear them before you saw them. They were christened the Blind Dunne brothers, a title inherited as they all had cataracts and appeared blind. 

Christy, a bachelor, played the banjo with a thimble. Joseph (Hanta), who was married, played the fiddle and banjo. Michael, also married, played the fiddle.

Photos of the trio busking together appear to be as rare as hens’ teeth although they are photo-shopped on the cover of a delightful album The Life and Music of the Dunne Brothers narrated by Paddy’s granddaughter Niamh Dunne and produced by the Nomad Project.

Christy and Michael moved to Cork in the early 70s and lived in the northern suburbs.

For almost a quarter of a century, the busking brothers were a feature of life in the heart of Cork city.

The duo that came from Tipperary town to Cork had their skills nurtured by their father John, a music teacher who, at one time, had a band of his own. He was well known, too, as a stage musician who performed during the early silent movies. People did not come to hear the Dunnes in a formal situation; they had to bring their music onto the street and appeal to as many ersby as they could.

If what they were playing was not bringing in money, they changed it.

As well as traditional tunes and airs, they played popular songs like Red Sails in the Sunset and Galway Bay, but they could also play classical pieces by Fritz Kreisler, Vittorio Monti, and Liszt, an amazing technical achievement.

Theirs was a story of the genius of music flying in the face of adversity.

Christy and Michael were to become part of life in Pana where their smiles and good humour were as popular as their music. They graciously accepted the that gave them a living and, in turn, gave generously of their time and talents especially when it came to entertaining the old folk. Music was their lifeline – it brought them food and clothes, a roof over their heads and a means of travel by allowing the upkeep of a horse and a barrel-shaped caravan which took them to all the major venues where big crowds were anticipated.

They could be heard and seen at Munster finals in Cork, Limerick, Thurles and Killarney, at Galway races, Fleadh Ceoils and even Knock Shrine pilgrimages.

Back in Cork, they entertained patrons queuing for blockbusters at the Savoy Cinema (mainly weekends) and the big soccer games up the Mardyke.

Mary Mitchell (UCC), talking on Clarebannerman, recalls Christy and Michael going into Pana usually on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They travelled light, having no need for music cases which they felt were a nuisance, and busked for hours outside Roches Stores where donations were thrown into a shoe-box that they would have acquired in Tyler’s, Winthrop Street. 

They were frequent and welcome visitors to Crowley’s iconic musical shop (described by Jimmy Crowley as the musician’s “Chapel of Ease”) in Merchant’s Quay/ MacCurtain Street where their musical requirements were generously provided, on a pay-after-you-play arrangement (when they could afford it), by a charitable proprietor Michael Crowley.

Tony McMahon, another irer of the Dunnes, in his Bring down the Lamp series in 1983, footage reproduced for Clarebannerman, said their music was not just sweet, it was vivacious, energetic and beautiful. Nearly everyone treated them with respect. However, there were some isolated cases when it wasn’t always so.

Household names in Irish music like McMahon, Seamus Connolly, Frank Gavin and Mick Moloney all credited the Dunne brothers as key figures in their musical development.

But nothing lasts forever, and Jim Cluskey in the Cork Examiner sadly announced the end of an outstanding partnership when informing readers in August 1987 of Christy’s ing when he wrote, “Now death has broken the alliance which for so long gave so much pleasure to natives and visitors alike. It has to be said that it is the “tall one” who has died... because the two had become inseparable in the public mind. Christy played the banjo and Michael the violin. It is the strings of the banjo that have been stilled. Now the death of the “tall one” has severed one more link with Cork of bygone days.

Cork’s own musical genius Jimmy Crowley paid them the ultimate tribute in his weekly Echo column: 

“It’s as if you silenced for ever one of the bells of Shandon, or snatched from the city a quorum of Echo boys, or hear with muffled ears the din of Pana, voice rich in the mirth of a summer’s afternoon; such is the loss Christy Dunne is to the music of Cork city, a unique fabric in the weave of the place. 

"Though the street was his rostrum, he performed regularly at the earlier traditional folk clubs in the city; at “Captain Mackey’s” in MacCurtain Street and at the Friday night ballad sessions in the Group Theatre on the South Main Street. A regular performer on Radio Telifís Éireann, ‘tis often that he stole the show on the Bring Down the Lamp and Céilí House and to the very end had a sound patron in Ciarán MacMathúna”.

Michael Dunne died nine years later in 1996 and was buried with Christy in their family plot in St Michael’s Cemetery, Blackrock. A distinctive headstone, with a carved banjo, is a reminder to visitors of their immense contribution to Ireland’s musical heritage.

Shortly after Michael’s ing Joseph (Hanta), a legend in his own right, ed away in Limerick.

But the legend lives through the musical Dunne dynasty led by uilleann piper Micky, son of violinist Paddy and nephew of the “blind” Dunnes, his wife Aideen and internationally renowned daughters Bríd and Niamh who inspired Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl.