An Evening with Ronnie Drew and Special Guest Mike Hanrahan

The Irish Arts Center presents the return of An Evening with Ronnie Drew and Special Guest Mike Hanrahan. This is a not-to-be-missed chance to hear the wonderful stories and songs of the one-and-only Irish music legend Ronnie Drew (formerly of The Dubliners), accompanied on guitar by ex-Stocktons Wing front man, Mike Hanrahan. This show is an extension of their critically acclaimed show Ronnie, I Hardly Knew Ya.

Ronnie Drew’s fame and popularity comes from his being considered the Elder Statesman of real Irish Folk Music. Drew & The Dubliners appeared from the back room of O’Donoghues Pub on Dublin’s Baggot Street. Right from the beginning, in 1962, their style of music created quite a stir. You might have called them the original punk music band of the Folk Music World. In 1967, they scandalized censors with the ribald lyrics of their first single; they release ‘Seven Drunken Nights.’ They compromised by singing only the first five verses but the controversy and Drew’s distinctive vocals pushed the record onto the British singles chart and earned them an invitation to perform on BBC’s Top of the Pops. In 1995 they returned to TTOPs with Shane McGowan and the Pogues, with their single ‘The Irish Rover’.

Throughout his career Drew has recorded and toured with a wide variety of groups and artists including Hothouse Flowers, Stocktons Wing, De Dannan, Donal Lunny, Giles Servat, Antonio Breschi and collaborated with world-music legend Jah Wobble on a recent recording ‘Invaders of the Heart’ featuring the works of famous Celtic poets.

In 1997 Drew teamed up with Mike Hanrahan and together they wrote and performed the critically acclaimed Ronnie I Hardly Knew Ya. The show had an eight-week run at the Andrews Lane Theatre in Dublin, followed by a nationwide tour of Irish theatres and a successful appearance at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They have also taken the show to Israel, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark, the USA and the UK.