Folk icon Andy Irvine on the shock death of the Irish singer, his past life as a TV soap actor, the thrill of Planxty and his tribute to Woody Guthrie
Folk legend Andy Irvine speaks of his shock at the recent tragic death of Glen Hansard and recalls the late singer-songwriter’s personal kindness and generosity.
Musician and singer Irvine, whose remarkable career ranges from an acting role in RTE’s first TV soaps to music acclaim in Planxty, reveals that he was once gifted a mandolin by Hansard.
“I didn’t know him that well, but I did meet him and worked on a piece of music with him one time,” says Andy who is set to release an album of Woody Guthrie songs.
“Glen was a wonderful guy and not just for his musical talent, but also for his kindness to others. One time he was in Australia and he went into a music shop and he found a Gibson mandolin and he later told me that he thought, ‘Andy would like that.’
“So he bought it and brought it home to Ireland and rang me up and said, ‘I’ve bought you a Gibson mandolin.’ And I thought that that was unbelievably generous and kind.
“I’d only met him a few times, so I was really knocked out by that. We played on a gig in London for Michael D Higgins when he was visiting the city and he was lovely then too. Glen would make you feel really good because he was so kind and generous.
“It’s a terrible, terrible shame that he’s gone. I was shocked when I heard the news. It was actually Claire Byrne from the Newstalk radio show who rang me up and asked me had I heard about Glen accident. And I hadn’t up to then. There was a rumour early in the day and, sadly, it turned out to be true.
“It’s a real tragedy and you could see from the reactions at home and abroad the impact he had made in the lives of people, particularly the young artists he had helped along the way. The connections that he had were phenomenal.”
Born in London, Irvine started his own life as a young actor on stage and TV in the UK before moving to Dublin where he landed a role on RTE’s first soap, Down at Flannerys, followed by Tolka Row.
“Tolka Row was gas,” Andy recalls. “I was about 20 years old and I looked about 14 and they cast me as the boyfriend of a 34-year-old woman. It was mad casting. So I was in a few episodes of Tolka Row back in 1963.”
Were people impressed when they met him that he was a TV star? “Well, I never knew anybody who had a television in those days, so ‘wow!’ is not a word I heard too often,” he laughs.
Irvine would certainly experience the wow factor in the early 70s with Irish folk supergroup Planxty, which also included Christy Moore, Donal Lunny and Liam O’Flynn.
Planxty made folk and trad music sexy for a new generation. “Yes, amazingly,” Andy agrees.” I don’t think we quite understood the reason for it, but it was an overnight success.
“We were on tour with (British pop star) Donovan and the first gig we played was in The Hangar ballroom in Galway. Suddenly the crowd were going berserk in front of us.
“I had seen fights in dance halls before and I thought, ‘is this a fight?’ So I looked at the other three members of the band and they are all grinning from ear to ear.
“It wasn’t a fight, it was the audience going absolutely berserk for the music. I’d never seen anything like that before. We probably played for half an hour and at the end of it the audience were going crazy for more.
“Our manager had to go and ask Donovan could we play an encore, because support bands don’t play encores. But he could hardly say no because I don’t know what the audience would have done had we not gone back on stage. I’d never seen anything like it and it was wonderful.”
Poor old Donovan having to follow that. “It was a bit like that,” Andy laughs. “But he was generous with his praise.”
It was high-energy music and it was thrilling and exiting, so you can see why people let loose with their emotions?
“We were often asked after that, ‘what do you think it was that made them do that?’ And we never really could answer that question except by saying, as I always do, that they were discovering something which they had been looking for and here it was.”
That style of folk music, this was rock n roll for them at the time? “Yeah, probably at the time it was,” he laughs.
It brought a whole new generation to the music? “Yes, it was good for that,” he agrees. “But a lot of the traditional musicians were a bit savage about the fact that Liam O’Flynn was playing with a bunch of guitars and bouzoukis and mandolins. But I think it did a lot of good in bringing the tradition back into people’s eyes.”
The purists didn’t approve? “One or two of them, and I have to say the obvious one…I’m not going to mention any names,” he laughs again.
“But Liam was great friends with (respected trad musician and Irish music collector) Seamus Ennis and Seamus was very much into it. So if Seamus Ennis thought we were good it did not become other traditional musicians to say anything else.”
If it’s good enough for Seamus Ennis? “Exactly.”
At the age of 84, Irvine is still touring and performing. There’s no stopping him. “Oh, I love it, I love it,” he says. “I’ve actually been off the road since June, so I’m itching to get back on it now.”
You were built for the road, the travelling troubadour? “It looks like it, that’s what I wanted to be alright,” he nods.
Like Woody Guthrie? “I suppose so, I followed him in nearly everything. I’ve never been quite sure whether my desire for travelling is from him or whether I had it before him, however we both share that road business.”
It was the songs and music of the American folk icon Guthrie that Irvine says changed the course of his life as a young man as he switched from acting to music.
Guthrie’s songs focused on themes of socialism, the plight of migrants, economic inequality, resilience and anti-fascism…all of which are still relevant in today’s dark and troubled world.
Irvine’s new album, Devoted, reimagines 11 of Guthrie’s songs and it’s a deeply personal album for him. Irvine had forged a friendship through correspondence with Guthrie who was then hospitalised with Huntington’s disease.
“I’m kind of proud of that, alright,” he says of the connection. “But I never met him, unfortunately.”
Andy Irvine was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2018,
Is it a lovely feeling to have the status you enjoy in the history of Irish music? “Of course, to be recognised by your fellow musicians is a wonderful feeling,” he acknowledges.
“But I can’t believe how old I am. I’m 84, but I’m not in bad shape and I’m excited by events that happen. I’ve still got the brain working and I look forward to the live shows.”
ANDY Irvine’s album Devoted (Songs of Woody Guthrie) will be released next Friday.