Miriam Meets...Barney Mc Kenna and John Sheahan

Listen to the programme

Miriam Callaghan's guests this Sunday are Barney Mc Kenna and John Sheahan, the two surviving original members of The Dubliners, in a programme of stories, poems, music and song celebrating the fascinating life and times of the most famous traditional Irish music group in the world. Barney and John recount, with wit and flair, some of the highlights of a musical life that spans forty seven years - from their unlikely beginnings in O'Donoghure's Pub in Dublin to their appearance on Top of the Pops with their infamously banned song "Seven Drunken Nights" and a musical career packing venues all over the world including The Albert Hall in London.

They remember too with warmth and affection members of The Dubliners who died all too prematurely and were an integral part of the group's international fame and popularity - Ciaran Bourke, Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. In their various permutations and combinations over the years The Dubliners have featured some of the most distinguished folk and traditional musicians, bringing the best of Irish music to every corner of the globe.

John Sheahan recounts some of the more famous Barneyisms - gems in which the bearded banjo player reinvents the English language in a distinctively creative and surreal way. Barney also movingly sings a love song lullaby to Miriam live in studio - "I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me."

In the course of the wide ranging conversation with Miriam, John Sheahan comes near to a definition of the prevailing durability and worldwide popularity of The Dubliners after nearly fifty years on the road:

"You do a concert and you make sounds and the sounds are left hanging in the air and then disappear but peoples' minds and hearts are changed. They go home different people from the people that arrived to begin with."