The Dubliners: in the Rare Oul' Times Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. When The Dubliners' original four-man line-up began playing together in O'Donoghue's pub in 1962, what were they first known as?

Answer: The Ronnie Drew Folk Group

O'Donoghue's, just off St. Stephen's Green in Dublin's southside, has a long association with Irish musicians including Christy Moore, The Fureys, S�amus Ennis and Phil Lynott. Although Ronnie Drew brought the group together he wasn't happy with its original name, and as Luke Kelly was reading a copy of James Joyce's short stories 'The Dubliners' at that time it seemed a fitting choice. Ironically though, Drew himself was born in Drogheda, a town north of Dublin - the only band member not born in Dublin itself. Ronnie, whose voice was once famously described as "the sound of coke being crushed under a door", left The Dubliners to go solo in 1995, and died in 2008 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

2. 'Well, if you've got a wing-o, Take her up to Ring-o Where the waxies sing-o, all the day; If you've had your fill of porter, And you can't go any further Give your man the order: "Back to the Quay!"' These are the opening lines of a favourite Dubliners song called 'Monto (Take Her Up To Monto)'. Who or what was Monto?

Answer: An infamous red light district

Monto was reputedly the biggest red light district in Europe at the turn of the 20th century. It was located around Montgomery Street (now Foley Street) in Dublin city centre, close to what is now Connolly railway station. The 'Circe' chapter of James Joyce's novel 'Ulysses' is based there. The removal of British soldiers from Dublin after the War of Independence (1919-21) was a heavy financial blow to Monto's viability, which was finished off in 1925 after a campaign by the Legion of Mary.

3. The original Dubliners line-up was Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Ciar�n Bourke and Barney McKenna (followed by John Sheahan in 1964). Which of them was renowned as the virtuoso of banjo and mandolin?

Answer: Barney McKenna

Although 'Banjo Barney' McKenna often played mandolin duets with John Sheahan, it was McKenna himself who was best associated with both instruments, with the reputation of being one of the finest banjo players in the world. His banjo solo on 'The Mason's Apron' was one of the highlights of Irish folk music. He was also well known for his unaccompanied singing, and for sea shanties. Sheahan and McKenna were, in 2010, the only two living members of the original Dubliners line-up.

4. 'As down the Glen came McAlpine's men with their shovels slung behind them. It was in the pub that they drank their sub or down in the spike you'll find them. They sweated blood and they washed down mud with pints and quarts of beer. And now we're on the road again with McAlpine's Fusiliers.' This Dominic Behan-penned song was written specifically for The Dubliners. Who were McAlpine's Fusiliers?

Answer: Construction workers

Dominic Behan's better known brother was Brendan Behan, an IRA Volunteer in the 1930s and author of 'Borstal Boy' and 'The Quare Fellow', but Dominic himself was also a leading Irish writer and songwriter, coming from a long family tradition of music, writing and politics.

His uncle, Peadar Kearney, wrote the lyrics of 'The Soldier's Song' which became the Irish national anthem. 'McAlpine's Fusiliers' was written to evoke the hardship of a generation of Irish emigrants to England after World War II , who ended up 'sweating blood' on the construction gangs of Sir Robert McAlpine's building company, particularly around London.

5. Luke Kelly's voice, more than any other, defined The Dubliners. Which song, with which he was particularly associated and which was written by Phil Coulter, tackled the issue of Down's Syndrome?

Answer: Scorn Not His Simplicity

Luke was born and brought up in inner city Dublin, and retained strong beliefs in socialism and Irish republicanism throughout his life. He died in 1984 from a brain tumour at the age of 44. His funeral service included many of the songs he had made so famous, including 'Raglan Road', 'The Auld Triangle', and 'Scorn Not His Simplicity' - written by Coulter about his own son.

6. In 2003, English folk singer Kate Rusby recorded a traditional ballad called 'The Goodman'. Which earlier Irish folk version, which The Dubliners brought to No. 7 on the British record charts in 1967, is usually sung - for reasons of propriety or censorship - without the last two verses (making the song's title a bit inaccurate)?

Answer: Seven Drunken Nights

'Seven Drunken Nights' is a ballad of a man returning home on successive nights of the week and noticing things which appear to belong to another man, but explained away - not altogether convincingly - by his wife. On the fifth night he sees what looks like a man's head on the pillow of his bed, but when he challenges his wife she says it's a baby boy her mother has sent her. Her husband says:

'Well, it's many a day I've travelled a hundred miles or more
But a baby boy with his whiskers on sure I never saw before.'

The song's verses for Saturday and Sunday night become more specific and risqu�, which is why the full version is normally sung only in pubs and clubs! 'Seven Drunken Nights' was the song which brought The Dubliners wider acclaim outside Ireland, after it was heavily played in 1967 by the pirate ship Radio Caroline.

7. Which member of the early Dubliners line-up was particularly associated with songs in the Irish language?

Answer: Ciar�n Bourke

Ciar�n Bourke went to Irish-language schools when growing up in Dublin in the 1940s. He introduced songs "i nGaeilge" (in Irish) to the group such as 'Peggy Lettermore' and 'S� Fath Mo Bhuartha' ('The Cause of My Sorrow'). He suffered from a brain aneurysm during a concert in England with The Dubliners in 1974 and was never to play onstage again after that year. The rest of the band regarded him as a full (non-playing but paid) member of the Dubliners until his death in 1988, and no replacement was made for him in the band until after his death.

8. 'And the auld triangle went jingle jangle All along the banks of the Royal Canal.' Luke Kelly sang this Brendan Behan-penned song, 'The Auld Triangle', without musical accompaniment - with the rest of The Dubliners joining in on the refrain. What was 'the auld triangle'?

Answer: A metal triangle beaten to wake up prisoners

The song first appears in Behan's first play 'The Quare Fellow' (1954) about the execution of a prisoner by hanging. ('Quare' means strange in Dublin, without any sexual connotation, although there's also a gay character in the play known as 'The Other Fellow').

The old triangle was a triangular-shaped metal bar hung on the landing in Mountjoy Prison and beaten with a hammer in the morning to wake prisoners up. Luke Kelly's powerful rendition for The Dubliners is probably the most famous version of 'The Auld Triangle', but it's been widely covered, including by Ronnie Drew (after he left The Dubliners), The Pogues, Bob Dylan and The Band, U2, and the Massachusetts punk band Dropkick Murphys.

9. Although the 'classic' Dubliners line-up was Drew, Kelly, McKenna, Bourke and Sheahan, several other musicians have been part of the band at different times. Who took his own life in 1982 and is sometimes referred to as 'the forgotten Dubliner'?

Answer: Bob Lynch

In 1964, Luke Kelly left The Dubliners briefly to work in England, and was replaced by Bob Lynch. The following year, Lynch left and Luke Kelly returned, playing with the band until his death in 1984. Bob Lynch appeared on just one of The Dubliners' albums, 'In Concert' (1965), and although he continued to play and made a further album under his own name he never received the scale of recognition his former Dubliners band mates were to get soon after his departure. Tragically, he committed suicide in 1982. Jim McCann and Paddy Reilly were former members of The Dubliners who were still actively involved in the music scene as at 2010, and Paddy Watchorn replaced Paddy Reilly in the band and was still with The Dubliners in 2010.

10. 'Oh the Russians and the Yanks, with lunar probes they play, Toora loora loora loora loo! And I hear the French are trying hard to make up lost headway, Toora loora loora loora loo! But now the Irish join the race, We have an astronaut in space, Ireland, boys, is now a world power too!' What is this Joe Dolan-penned song, made famous by The Dubliners, which commemorates a popular bomb explosion in Dublin against a symbol of Britishness?

Answer: Nelson's Farewell

In March 1966 - the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland - a bomb, believed to be the work of people with IRA associations, demolished the granite statue of Horatio Nelson in Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street. The statue had been erected in 1808 to commemorate Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, more than 40 years before the more famous statue to him was erected in London. The song appeared on The Dubliners' 1966 album 'Finnegan Wakes'.

'From his stand of stones and mortar,
He fell crashing through the quarter,
Where once he stood so stiff and proud and rude,

So let's sing our celebration,
It's a service to the nation.
So poor ould Admiral Nelson, Tooraloo.'

Source: Author dsimpy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ertrum before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The first LP record I ever bought was of The Dubliners, and I still have it nearly 40 years later. Toora loora loora loora loo! Take a look at the original line-up of this quintessential Irish folk ballad group, and some of their songs!

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