The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

"President de Valera invited Tommy Makem and The Clancy Brothers Tom, Paddy and Liam to the Áras for afternoon tea, to personally express his immense gratitude and pride in the group’s phenomenal success in the Irish ballad boom and folk music revival that started in Greenwich Village, New York City. The most famous Irish ballad singers in the world, they took the folk songs they had grown up with in Keady, Co Armagh and Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary respectively, and with their theatrical training, injected new life into the old songs performing some of them to faster rhythms to the accompaniment of guitar, banjo, tin whistle and harmonica. They wore bainín Aran Sweaters when performing in concerts and on TV and brought Irish culture and style to a whole new audience worldwide. It was a time of new beginnings, Kennedy was in the White House and the Irish nation was beginning to find its feet. The songs of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem have become part of the fabric of Irish society. This photograph of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem with President Eamon de Valera used to hang over the fireplace in Mammy Clancy’s kitchen in Carrick- on-Suir, Co Tipperary where the Clancy brothers grew up. After she died in 1968, Tom chose it as a memento from his childhood home. The sticker on the back says it was framed by Thomas O’Keeffe, Carrick-on-Suir. The glass has a crack on it. Christmas features the four Clancy Brothers, Paddy, Tom, Liam and Bobby and was released in October 1968. The cover was photographed in T & H Doolan's Pub & Restaurant in Waterford, owned by Liam Clancy at the time. When Tommy Makem left the group in April 1969 he was replaced by Bobby Clancy who was well known as a performer in his own right, and had a popular TV series on RTE with his sister Peg Power. The cultural legacy of the Clancy brothers and of Tommy Makem has become part of the fabric of our society. "