Barney McKenna

Barney McKenna of the Dubliners. Nearly a Chieftain.

Born on December 16, 1939, in Dublin’s Donnycarney. Both his brother Seán Óg and cousin Mickey McKenna play the banjo. He became interested in music at a young age and got lessons on the mandolin from an uncle before moving on to the banjo.
It’s said he was turned down by the Number One Army Band because he didn’t have 6/6 vision. By this time, he had mastered the tenor banjo so well that he embarrassed most musicians who had ever attempted to play it. He left school at 14 and a few years later emigrated to England. After returning to Dublin he got a job laying telegraph poles with Posts and Telegraphs. He caused a stir when he turned up at the door of the Pipers Club, not yet with beard, banjo case in hand, wearing a red shirt, black lace tie and winklepickers. He was admitted, however.
During this time, he played the banjo at concerts, cabarets, and a stint in a quartet with Martin Fay and Paddy Moloney, who were forming The Chieftains. He once remarked “I should have been a Chieftain but instead I grew a beard and became a Dubliner”. He met Ronnie Drew following a Gate Theatre show with John Molloy and shortly after The Dubliners were formed.
He uses GDAE tuning, an octave below fiddle/mandolin and, according to musician Mick Moloney, is single-handedly responsible for making the GDAE tuned tenor banjo the standard banjo in Irish music.
In 1979 he travelled to Europe with accordion player Tony MacMahon as part of an RTE television series. They played Irish music and visited locations in Europe that had strong historical and cultural links with Ireland.
While The Dubliners are best known as a ballad group, Barney’s banjo playing and his duets with fiddle player John Sheahan were an important component in the raucous excitement that Dubliners concerts generated.
An innovative performer of Irish dance music on the banjo, his duet with Belfast fiddler Sean Maguire on The Mason’s Apron is breath-taking. He once said that the artists he most admired were Paul Robeson, Joe Heaney, Segovia and Julian Bream.
Suffered a stroke in 2001. He was diagnosed late with diabetes and lost the sight of his right eye completely. As a result, he walks unsteadily and with assistance but still continues to delight fans with his banjo playing and wit.
Sample: “There’s no use in being an eejit, unless you can prove it.”

Barney McKenna suffered a heart attack and died at his home in Howth, Co Dublin, on April 5, 2012. He is buried in Trim, Co Meath.