Actor and singer Joe Lynch was born in born in Mallow, Co Cork, on July16, 1925, the son of an engine driver and a bookbinder. He excelled in sports at school, played the piano and tin whistle, learned Irish dancing and had a fine tenor voice.

Joe Lynch: versatile actor and singer.

He went to school at Blackrock College, Dublin, after which he acted part-time at the Cork Opera House and trained at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
By the time he joined the Radio Eireann Repertory Company in 1947, he was performing full-time. He acted, sang and compered radio programmes such as Young at Heart, The Balladmakers’ Saturday Night and Living With Lynch (1954-58), his own comedy series.
He combined his Radio Eireann work with impressive roles on stage; he played Bull McCabe in J.B. Keane’s The Field, and Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World.
Following small parts in films such as A Terrible Beauty (1960), The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), Johnny Nobody (1961), The Running Man (1963), Girl with Green Eyes (1964) and The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), he made his mark on RTE as Cathal Brugha in Hugh Leonard’s series Insurrection (1966), which marked the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
He also played Blazes Boylan in Joseph Strick’s film version Ulysses (1967), in John Huston’s The Mackintosh Man (1973), and in the Irish film Eat the Peach (1986).
Joe Lynch was also an accomplished singer performing on stage, screen and radio variety shows, and he made popular recordings of The Whistling Gypsy, The Rose of Mooncoin and The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door.
Moving on to fresh pastures in British TV, he starred as the Irish trouser-maker Patrick Kelly in 39 episodes of the comedy Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width (1967-71) and in the sitcom Rule Britannia (1975),  before playing one of Elsie Tanner’s boyfriends in Coronation Street (1978-79).
Returning to Ireland, he took the role of the scheming, cantankerous Dinny Byrne alonside Gabriel Byrne in the popular rural drama Bracken (1980-82), and was cast in the same role along with Mick Lally in the sequel, Glenroe (1983-2000).
Joe Lynch married Marie Nutty in 1952 (one son, one daughter, and one daughter deceased). He died Alicante, Spain on August 1, 2001.

Maisie McDaniel. Quit Irish showband scene prematurely.

With hits like Pick Me up on Your Way Down,  Roomful of Roses and Blackboard of My Heart, Maisie McDaniel became a household name during the Irish showband boom of the 1960s.

However, a promising showbiz  career was cut short dramatically when she and her then husband, the well-known accordion playerFintan Stanley, were involved in a serious road accident which left her badly injured and led to her premature retirement from the music business. A highlight of her career was when she performed with legendary US singer Jim Reeves when he visited Ireland.

She was born Mary Anne McDaniel in Sligo. After winning a ballad competition in Mayo, she came to prominence in the early 1960s with a local band in Sligo called The Fendermen. She then teamed up with Fintan Stanley who was recognised as one of the top accordion players of his time.
Maisie McDaniel and Fintan Stanley were so successful that they came to the attention of the record companies and a shrewd promoter, George O’Reilly, suggested she sing country and western. She was to front the Nevada Showband and on St Stephens Night, 1964, the band made its debut at the Premier Ballroom in Thurles.
The new band was just getting off the ground when disaster struck. Masie was a passenger in a car driven by showbiz entrepreneur Oliver Barry when the accident happened in January 1965. She broke her hip and was hospitalised for several months. She also missed her chance to represent Ireland in Eurovision, her place being taken by Dickie Rock.
After her recovery, she decided to take a break from the showband scene. Her place was taken by the singer Kelley, who went on to have some success with the band which lasted for many years and was fronted by, among others, Red Hurley.
Maisie and Fintan Shanley married and they went to England playing the cabaret scene there for several years.
Returning to Ireland in 1969 she made regular TV appearances and she and her husband formed the Nashville Ramblers and became known for their recording of Okie from Muskogee. They toured England and appeared on the BBC.
But in August 1970, Maisie left the band because of a threatened miscarriage and her husband also quit.
She remained out of the limelight after her daughter Lisa was born in 1973, only performing in a local show in Sligo called Jamboree. Eventually Maisie and Fintan split up. He emigrated to America.
She died at her home in County Sligo on June 28, 2008, aged 62. Lisa Shanley, also a singer, released a CD of Maisie’s hits in 2009.

Widely regarded as one of Ireland’s finest actors, Cyril Cusack was born in Durban, South Africa, on November 26, 1910. He was the son of an Irish father, James Cusack, a mounted policeman in Natal Province. His mother, Alice Cole, was an English Cockney chorus girl.

Cyril Cusack. Stage debut at seven.

When he was six, Cyril moved to Ireland with his mother, where she met an actor, Brefni O’Rourke. They set up their own theatrical company, putting on melodramas and pantomimes across the country.
Mr. Cusack made his stage debut at the age of seven, and in later years described his family’s life on the road as “a glorious adventure.” He said he went to almost every school in Ireland.
He got a law degree at University College, Dublin, but decided on a career in acting.
In 1932, he joined the Abbey Theatre, appearing in 65 plays in 13 years. Occasional tours with plays in Britain helped establish his reputation
He formed his own touring company in 1945, and in the 1950s had regular film roles in Hollywood. In 1963, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Old Vic the following year.
In a long career, Mr. Cusack appeared in a wide variety of films including “Odd Man Out” (1947), “Waltz of the Toreadors” (1962), “Fahrenheit 451″ (1966), “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” (1966), “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967), “The Day of the Jackal” (1973), “True Confessions” (1981), “Little Dorrit” (1987) and “My Left Foot” (1989). He was also a poet and published his first collection in 1928.
His work won critical acclaim and awards in the United States, Paris, two doctorates from Irish universities and an award for achievements by Irish people in Britain.
Sinead, Sorcha and Niamh - his daughters by his first marriage - appeared with him in “The Three Sisters” at London’s Royal Court Theatre and Dublin’s Gate in 1990, the first time he had worked with all three.
Sinead is married to the film actor Jeremy Irons and Sorcha’s husband is the Shakespearean actor Nigel Cook.
Mr. Cusack, who had homes in London and Dublin, died on October 7, 1993, at his London home. He was 82. He was survived by his second wife, Mary, the mother of his youngest daughter, Catherine. His first wife, also Mary, who died in the 1970s, was the mother of their sons, Paul and Padraig, as well as their three daughters. His family said at the time of his death that he had been ill for a long time with motor neuron disease.

Butch Moore: Showband success.

Butch Moore, lead singer with the Capitol Showband, was at the height of his success in 1965, when he won the National Song Contest to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest, in Naples, singing Walking the Streets in the Rain.
He was born in Dublin in 1938, the son of Thomas Moore and Nora (née Fay).  His father worked in Leinster House for 50 years.The family lived on the North Circular Road, and Butch attended O’Connell Schools, where he sang in the choir. He also performed as a boy soprano on Radio Éireann. He acquired the name Butch because of his resemblance to a character in one of the popular films of his youth .
He began his working career as an apprentice printer but his real interest was in music and singing. He played with a number of bands before getting his big break with the Capitol Showband in 1958. Its line-up included band leader, Des Kelly, and Paddy Cole, who is still involved in music, and an early songwriter for the band was Phil Coulter.
The Capitol achieved a considerable degree of success in the early 1960s. It toured America in 1961, and two years later became the first showband to appear on the new Irish television service. The Capitol played in the London Palladium in 1964 on a night when the lineup included Roy Orbison.
After Eurovision his celebrity status grew in the dance halls. He would later recall narrowly escaping injury at the hands of fans in July 1965, when he was pulled off the stage by a surging crowd in the Arcadia Ballroom, in Bray. But the showband world was to prove a fickle and volatile business for the Eurovision hero. His marriage to Nora Sheridan, with whom he had three children, Karen, Gráinne and Gary, broke up. And his career nosedived after he left the Capitol.
He emigrating to the United States in 1970. There, along with the folk singer Maeve Mulvany, later to become his second wife, he developed a successful cabaret act. They had three children, Rory, Thomas and Tara.
They subsequently owned a very successful nightclub – The Parting Glass – in Millbury, Massachusetts. Butch Moore was employed as chief deputy sheriff, Worcester County, Massachusetts, from 1990 to the time of his death, and was described by a former colleague there as “probably one of the most popular and well-liked people in a county of over 750,000 people”.
Butch Moore died on April 3, 2001, and was survived by his wife Maeve (died 2004), children, Karen, Gráinne, Gary, Rory, Thomas and Tara, brothers, Brendan, Desmond and Thomas, and sister Marie.

Irish actor Donal McCann: Understated but emotive.

Donal McCann was born in Dublin on May 7, 1943. One of the most acclaimed Irish actors of his time, his often understated but emotive, transfixing style won him widespread recognition.
He went Terenure College in the 1950s and it was there that he began thinking of a career on stage. The college had a stong Shakespearian tradition and it became clear to some of his teachers that he was “actor material”.
However, he first studied architecture in Bolton Street, though this was short-lived. He then worked as a copyboy on the Irish Press newspaper. He eventually went to the Abbey School of Acting in the early sixties, from where he joined the company.
His father John had been the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Fianna Fáil man and was also a playwright. Donal starred in one of his plays. His first big part in theatre came when he was cast as Tarry Flynn in the Patrick Kavanagh adaptation of that novel. At the age of twenty, he got his first big film role in the Disney production “The Fighting Prince of Donegal“.
Over the years he has acted in innumerable stage and screen productions. But, he will perhaps be best remembered for his TV role in “Strumpet City” in the seventies and in John Huston’s film, “The Dead”. Later he was highly acclaimed for his role in “The Steward of Christendom“.
Although he spent most of his career at the Abbey and Gate theatres in Dublin, his reputation grew in England and the United States. In 1997 he won praise for his performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Sebastian Barry’s ”Steward of Christendom” as a Lear-like, senile Roman Catholic Dublin police chief torn between loyalty to Britain and the emerging independent Irish Free State.
Critics said he was probably never better than as Gabriel Conroy, the kind but unloved and unloving husband in John Huston’s film adaptation of James Joyce’s story ”The Dead” (1987). He performed to wide acclaim in several plays by his friend Brian Friel.
While Donal McCann appeared in many films, he considered himself primarily a stage actor, particularly a character actor. But his roles were large in plays like Friel’s ”Faith Healer’‘ and Samuel Beckett’s ”Waiting for Godot,” in which he was Estragon.
His work included a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Strindberg’s ”Miss Julie.” He also had the lead role in Hugh Leonard’s ”Da” and in 1988 began to win recognition in New York as Captain Boyle, the comic-tragic drunkard coward in Sean O’Casey’s ”Juno and the Paycock.”
After one performance of ”Juno,” Katharine Hepburn went backstage in tears and said, ”How did you learn to do that?” Mr. McCann, as quick-tongued offstage as on, said, ”By watching you.”

Devil and a Saint

Michael Colgan, the artistic director of the Gate, said: ”Donal’s genius is that he always proves the writer right, proves the director right and proves the audience right just for being there. That is why he’s the greatest actor we’ve ever had. He is both a devil and a saint, and he has suffered for it. But that’s also where he gets his great power.”
Sebastian Barry said his style was ”extravagant minimalism.”
His work was interrupted by depressions and by his alcoholism until he stopped drinking in the late 1980s. He could joke wryly about it. ”It was worth having something to get away from,” he said in 1998, ”but nobody made me drink.”
He said that he was a devout Christian but did not consider himself Roman Catholic. ”God takes my life forward,” he said, after his cancer was diagnosed. ”I would like to leave the theatre for a while. I’m not in a panic to do anything. I’m not ambitious for anything.”

Donal McCann and Anjelica Huston in a scene from 'The Dead'

In an interview on RTE in 1998, he said: ”I always took myself for a character actor. An actor’s job is to serve writing. It’s not self-advertisement.”
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper he said: ”There is a suggestion that everyone would like to be a Hollywood actor, that doing well-paid rubbish is what we all aspire to. It’s ludicrous. I’m not going to hire a soapbox to denounce the whole thing, but this desire to be known, I just don’t understand it.”
His films, some made for television, included ”Illuminata,” produced by John Turturro in 1997; ”Hedda Gabler’‘; ”The Miracle”; ”Out of Africa,” and ”Cal,” produced by David Puttnam, about the sectarian warfare in Northern Ireland.
He had been battling cancer for some time when he died on July 17, 1999, in Dublin at the age of 56. He was survived by his sister Margaret.

‘Doc’ Carroll, born Martin Carroll, was lead singer with  1960s Mayo Royal Blues showband. In 1966, Doc Carroll and the Royal Blues became the first  showband from the West of Ireland to score a No. I in the Irish Top 10. His version of “Old Man Trouble” stayed two weeks at No 1 and become a showband era clasic. It remained synonymous with Doc throughout his life.

Doc carroll. No 1 with "Old Man Trouble".

Two years earlier, in 1964, the Royal Blues was signed by Kerry-born promoter Bill Fuller to perform a series of dates at venues he promoted in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. They drew capacity crowds to City Center in New York and other major venues where the sons and daughters of many families from Connaught had settled.
The co-lead singer in the band was Shay O’Hara, from Carlow, and the other members were Vincent and Frank Gill from Claremorris, and Brian Carr, Brendan Arnold, Bobby Smith and Don Flanagan, all from Dublin. They were managed by Andy Creighton.
In 1983, they reformed for a series of shows and attracted a dance crowd of 2,000 in Claremorris Town Hall in June of that year. Their last reunion was in 2001 when they played a week-long series of dates around the country. Doc Carroll stayed in showbusiness and was performing up to a year before he died. He had introduced Donna McCaul from Athlone into his band. Some months later, Donna and her brother Joe won Ireland’s You’re A Star Song Contest.
Over the previous decade, he toured in England where he had a resident band and enjoyed a measure of success on the English circuit. The songs of Fats Domino and other legends from that era were an integral part of his show. He was also an accomplished lead guitar player with a special flair for country instrumentals, most notably the old classic “Wildwood Flower” which was featured on the Royal Blues album “In A Country Field”.
He died at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin, in May 2005, aged 64. He was survived by his wife Mary, daughters Claudene and Nicola, sons Franklin and Conor.

Ruby Murray was born in Belfast on March 29, 1935, to a Scottish father and an Irish mother. She had an operation for swollen glands when she was only six weeks, which left her with an unusually husky voice. A childhood visit to see the minstrel performer G.H. Elliott inspired her to join a children’s choir, and soon she was performing solo. When she was 12 she made her professional debut on Irish television and two years later, with her mother as chaperone, she was touring in variety.

Ruby Murray. An unusually husky voice.

Over the next five years she appeared in revues throughout Ireland and Scotland. When the touring show Yankee Doodle Blarney played at the Metropolitan Music Hall in London in 1954, the television producer Richard Afton, who had been responsible for her Irish television appearance as a child, spotted her again and signed her to succeed Joan Regan as resident singer in his television series Quite Contrary.

Ruby Murray’s first appearance on the show prompted the record producer Ray Martin to give her a contract with Columbia Records. Her second release, “Heartbeat“, went to No 2 in the charts, and was followed by the song which was to become a Number One hit ans  her signature tune, “Softly, Softly“. Three more Top Twenty hits followed,  “Happy Days and Lonely Nights”, “If Anyone Finds This, I Love You”, and “Evermore”. Also in 1955, New Musical Express readers voted her Britain’s favourite female vocalist and she appeared in the Royal Variety Show.

The following year she had an acting role as a chambermaid in the Frankie Howerd comedy A Touch of the Sun, and made the first of two successful tours of the United States. During a hectic period in the mid-50s, she had her own television show, starred at the London Palladium in Painting The Town with Norman Wisdom , appeared in a Royal Command Performance, and toured the USA, Malta and North Africa.

Though she was to have two more modest record hits, “Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye” (1959) and “Change Your Mind” (1970), and continued to headline variety bills in the provinces for another two decades, her career was never to reach such a peak again, while problems in her personal life plus the stresses of her career were complicated by a growing addiction to both alcohol and valium.

In 1957, while appearing in a summer season at Blackpool, she met Bernie Burgess, a member of the vocal group the Jones Boys. They married in secret 10 days later. Burgess became her personal manager and, during the early 60s, they toured as a double act.

In 1955, she had five different songs in the UK Top 20 simultaneously, a record only equalled later by Michael Jackson. But by the end of 1955 British audiences were being captivated by the rock n’ roll of  Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley. Ruby’s career began to falter. Her last chart hit was in 1959. But she continued to perform right up until her health failed.

When Murray fell in love with the comedian Frank Carson, who was already married, the stresses it put on her marriage increased her reliance on alcohol. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous and twice spent time in a psychiatric hospital after nervous breakdowns. When she and Burgess divorced in 1977,  he was awarded custody of their two children Julie and Tim, now the singer Tim Murray.

The same year she began living with Ray Lamar, a theatrical manager for Bernard Delfont, and in 1993 they were married. Though it was a loving relationship, the chronic alcoholism persisted, despite repeated attempts by Murray to stop. (When she did stop, she would smoke 80 cigarettes a day.) In 1982 she was arrested and fined for being drunk and disorderly – she spent a night in a cell and is said to have entertained the police with her hit songs. Her name lives on in Cockney rhyming slang as the rhyme for curry.

For the last two years she had totally given up drinking, but her liver had become irreparably damaged and for the eight months until her death she was a patient in a nursing home. The LBC broadcaster Lee Stevens, her manager for 12 years, said, “She gave happiness to millions of people, but sadly she never found real happiness herself.”

Ruby Murray died in Torquay, Devon, on December 17, 1996. At her beside were Ray Lamar, ex-husband Bernie Burgess and their son and daughter Tim and Julie.

Ruby Murray was the subject of an hour-long documentary Ruby and the Duke presented by Northern songwriter and performer Duke Special and broadcast on RTE on January 18, 2011.

The UK Top Twenty for March 16, 1955

1. Give Me Your Word, Tennessee Ernie Ford. 2. Softly Softly, Ruby Murray. 3. A Blossom Fell, Nat King Cole, 4. Mobile, Ray Burns. 5. Let Me Go Lover, Ruby Murray. 6. Mambo Italiano, Rosemary Clooney. 7. Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, Dean Martin.8. Let Me Go Lover, Dean Martin. 9. Finger of Suspicion, Dickie Valentine.
10. Let Me Go Lover, Teresa Brewer.11. A Blossom Fell, Dickie Valentine. 12. Tomorrow, Johnny Brandon. 13. Beyond the Stars, David Whitfield. 14. Happy Days and Lonely Nights, Ruby Murray. 15. Heartbeat, Ruby Murray. 16. Wedding Bells, Eddie Fisher. 17. If Anyone Finds This I Love You, Ruby Murray. 18. Lonely Ballerina, Mantovani. 19. Shake, Rattle & Roll, Bill Haley’s Comets. 20. A Blossom Fell, Ronnie Hilton.

Dana was born Rosemary Brown in Derry on August 30, 1951. In 1970 as a teenager she represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing All Kinds of Everything, and brought home the country’s first victory in the contest. Dana recruited her father as her manager and followed with hits including Who Put The Lights Out?, Please Tell Him That I Said Hello and It’s Gonna Be A Cold, Cold Christmas. She ideintified publically with her Catholic upbringing, notably with songs such as Totus Tuus, commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979.

Dana: Eurovision winner and politician.

In the 1980s, she moved with her husband, Damien Scallon whom she married in 1978, and family to the United States, where they were involved with a Christian broadcasting network. She returned to Ireland in 1997 to contest the Irish Presidential election as an independent. She came in a credible third, ahead of the Labour Party candidate. In 1999, again as an independent, she contested and won a seat in the European Parliament representing Connacht-Ulster.

She has declined to associate with any political party. She campaigns on family values, most notably in her opposition to abortion. Her decision in 1999 to oppose a government proposed amendment to the Irish constitution to place some restrictions on abortion, which put her at variance with mainstream Pro-Life movement in Ireland, the mainstream political parties and the Roman Catholic Church, on the basis that in her eyes the anti-abortion amendment wasn’t anti-abortion enough, lost her much of her original support. The defeat of that amendment was blamed on ultra-conservative elements, who were accused by other anti-abortion campaigners of destroying the likely last chance to impose stricter abortion restrictions in Ireland.
In 2002, Dana Scallon contested a seat in the Irish general election, again as an independent. In what was seen as a backlash against her stance in the previous abortion referendum, she lost disastrously, getting just 3.5% of the vote  and losing her deposit.
Scallon lost her seat in the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004. Interviewed later she said: ”I have no regrets about my political career. It was a wonderful five years and I loved it. While I hope I will be best remembered for my work as a politician as well as an entertainer, my main priority has always been to be a good wife and mother.”

Gay Byrne. Longest runningTV chat show.

Born in Rialto, Dublin, on August 5, 1934, when Gay Byrne was young the family moved to the South Circular Road. His parents came from the Bray area of Co Wicklow, and his father worked for Guinness. Educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, he started his working life in insurance. In 1958 he moved to broadcasting, becoming a presenter on Radio Éireann. He also worked in England with Granada TV and the BBC. While at Granada, he became the first person to introduce The Beatles on TV.
He joined the newly set-up Telifís Éireann (later RTE) in 1961 and introduced many popular programmes such as Jack Pot, Film Night and the Rose of Tralee. However, his most popular and successful programme was the Late Late Show, which became the world’s longest running chat show, running from 1962 until 1999. In 1964 he married the harpist Kathleen Watkins and they have two daughters, Suzy and Crona.
The Late Late, as it was popularly referred to, started originally  as an eight week summer filler. The show was moved to the Saturday night slot and it became a forum where controversial topics such as the Church, contraception, homosexuality and compulsory Irish were discussed openly for the first time in Ireland.
It was famously said by Dail deputy and Catholic conservative Oliver J Flanagan, in a reference to the show, that “there was no sex in Ireland until Teilifís Éireann went on the air.” Bishop Michael Browne of Galway called him “a purveyor of filth” after the host asked a woman if she had worn anything on her wedding night. He conducted his shows with charm and neutrality and had a knack of putting people at their ease, sometimes coaxing them to say more than they had intended.
His popularity grew such that he has been referred to as “the most famous man in Ireland”. It is widely accepted that the show greatly influenced the shaping the new Ireland that emerged in the second half of the 20th century, a point made by President McAleese. In 1985 the Late Late moved to a Friday night slot.

Late late highlights:

• Encouraging then EU Commissioner Padraig Flynn to talk about the difficult upkeep of his three houses.
• Interview with Annie Murphy, Bishop Eamon Casey’s onetime lover and mother of his son.
• The Dubliners show.
• The interview with Gerry Adams.
• When he called the winner of a prize car live on air only to discover the woman’s daughter had died since she had entered the competition.
• Interview with Terry Keane who revealed she had had a long-term affair with Charles Haughey.

He was famously gifted a Harley Davidson motorcycle by Bono and U2 on his last night hosting the Late Late Show. The bike was later auctioned for charity.
Gay Byrne was also a successful radio broadcaster. Radio Éireann gave him a 15-minute slot on Monday nights which he used to play jazz, his first broadcast for the station being in 1958. But he is best known on radio for The Gay Byrne Show (1972-1999), a two hour morning discussion and music programme in which his personal style, soothing voice and common sense approach to life endeared him to listeners.
Broadcasting aside, he presented The Rose of Tralee Festival for 17 years, until 1994, and compered the finals of the Castlebar Song Contest in 1966 and 1967. He has won numerous television awards and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1989 he wrote his autobiography entitled The Time of My Life. In 1999 he was awarded the freedom of Dublin City.
He has been unfortunate in his nest egg investments. He relied on accountant and  friend Russell Murphy to manage his finances, only to discover on the accountant’s death in 1986 that most of his savings had been secretly squandered.
Since retirement he has remained close to the limelight. In 2009, he recorded a TV series for RTE series called The Meaning of Life in which he interviewed public figures about issues of faith. He has hosted a Sunday afternoon jazz series on Lyric FM Radio. Also, in March 2006, he became chairman of the Irish Road Safety Authority. He and his wife have downsized from their house in Howth to an apartment in Sandymount.

In August, 2011, he was approached by the Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin about running for the presidency of Ireland. He was to turn down the offer. At one point, according to an opinion poll, he was seven points ahead of Micheal D Higgins who was subsequently elected President.

Related Post: Late, Late director Adrian Cronin

Popularly known as ”The Gorgeous Gael”, Jack (Joe) Doyle was born into a working class family on August 31, 1913, in Cobh, Cork. Queenstown, as it was then known, was a tough town but Doyle learned early on how to look after himself. He was to become at one time or another a contender for the British Boxing Championship, a Hollywood actor and a popular tenor.

Jack Doyle: boxer, singer and actor.

His father, Joe Doyle, wanted to be a professional boxer, but injury put an early end to his career. Instead he transferred his ambitions to his young son.
Jack was said to be inspired by a book, How to Box, by World Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey. He joined the Irish Guards in Wales and at 6 foot 4, quickly excelled at boxing and was famed for his strong hooks that won him the British Army Championship. A remarkable record of 28 straight victories, 27 by knockout, brought him to the attention of promoter Dan Sullivan, who bought him out of the army. He turned pro and notched up ten victories on the trot, all inside two rounds.
In July 1933, at the age of 19, he missed out on the British Heavyweight title to the holder, Welshman Jack Petersen, before 85,000 people in the White City in London. He had done most of his warming up in a pub not far from the venue and within the opening seconds, knowing he was in trouble, decided to take the easy way out. He was disqualified for repeatedly punching low. In his comeback fight, he knocked out Frank Borrington within 83 seconds.
Shortly after, his singing voice was discovered by Dr. Vincent O’Brien, teacher to Count John McCormack. He was signed up by Decca Records and soon his tenor voice and handsome looks were selling out the London Palladium and the Royal in Dublin. He became a wealthy man by the standards of the day, reputedly earning the equivalent of £20,000 in some of his fights. But his love for the drink and generous nature soon started to take its toll on his pocket and his health.
He travelled to America in 1934 and carried on his high living of gambling, ladies and drink. His good looks, bad-boy image and ability to attract Hollywood divas and American heiresses brought him close to people’s hearts. He acted in two movies, McGlusky The Sea Rover (1934) and Navy Spy (1937).
While in the States he continued to box, taking on one Buddy Baer in August 1935. Like his fight against Jack Peterson, it is said that Doyle had consumed the best part of a bottle of brandy before the bell rang and was in no fit state to stand. He was knocked down in the first round. He returned to Ireland with this new girlfriend, the actress Movita Castaneda, having recently split from his wife, Judith Allan. Following a celebrity wedding in Dublin’ they toured both sides of the Irish Sea, selling out music halls and opera houses.
Around this time Jack fought his last professional fight, against a journeyman called Chris Cole in front of 23,000 in Dublin’s Dalymount Park. Arriving late for the bout after a stop at The Clarence Hotel for refreshments, the inebriated Doyle went down in the first. Movita had enough and returned to Hollywood where she married Marlon Brando.
Shortly after Doyle was jailed in Dublin for knocking out a Garda detective in a pub. He moved to England and his downward spiral into alcoholism and bankruptcy continued. In 1950 he tried a comeback as a wrestler but the magic was gone. He found his friends had vanished as fast as his money, spent in his own words on “slow horses and fast women”. He odd-jobbed for while but when he couldn’t afford the rent on his flat he took to sleeping at the homes of friends or in doorways. His only source of income during this time was a £25 allowance he received from Movita.
He was living on the streets of London when he was found dead on a footpath in December,1978, from cirrhosis of the liver. His body lay unclaimed in a London hospital until a delegation from Cobh brought his remains home to be buried. In spite of his wasted talent he got a hero’s funeral in Cork. He is remembered by thousands of Irish people at home and abroad as the first modern celebrity.

A TV documentary Jack Doyle: A Legend Lost, was made by RTE in 2007.  A book accompanying the programme,  Jack Doyle: The Gorgeous Gael, ISBN 1843511231, was published in late 2007
A song about Jack Doyle The Contender, written by Jimmy McCarthy, has been performed by Finbar Wright, Christy Moore and Tommy Fleming among others.

The Contender
by Jimmy McCarthy

When I was young and I was in my day
I could steal what woman’s heart there was away
Sing and dance into the dawning
Blaze a trail until the morning
Long before I was the man you see today

And I was born beneath the star that promised all
I could have lived my life between Cork, Cobh and Youghal
But the wheel of fortune took me
From the highest point she shook me
By the bottle live by the bottle I shall fall

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the fall
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

And when I die I’ll die a drunk down on the street
He will count me out to ten in clear defeat
Wrap the Starry Plough around me
Let the piper’s air resound me
There I’ll rest until the lord of love I meet

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the brawl
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving