From left, Mick Moloney, Jimmy Crowley, and Robbie O'Connell.
Sitting on the stage at the Shanachie Pub and Restaurant between Irish trad buddies Robbie O’Connell and Jimmy Crowley, musician and folklorist Mick Moloney recalled the time in the early 60s when he met famed Irish balladeer Danny Doyle in Dublin.
“The hardest thing about playing in pubs was getting paid at the end of the night,” he said. He recalled one barkeeper with Parkinson’s disease whose hands shook so badly that “it was four or five different grabs before you could get your money. Whenever I get together with Danny, we always talk about that.”
These days, however, Doyle, who has recorded 35 albums and performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and the National Concert Hall in Dublin, hasn’t had any gigs to get paid for. In August, surgery for a carotid blockage left Doyle unable to perform. So on Sunday, Gerry Timlin, co-owner of the Shanachie, organized the benefit to help Doyle meet the bills. And before they headed to another benefit at St. Malachy’s Church and School in Philadelphia, Moloney, O’Connell and Crowley stopped in at the Ambler pub to sing for their friend. So did a gang of other performers, including McGirr and Alberts, the King Brothers, and the Malones. Bill Reid of East of the Hebrides Entertainment, emceed the event which interspersed raffle drawings with some great music.