The Dubliners are at the Baggot Inn to launch 'Further Along' a first album featuring Paddy Reilly as lead singer.
After 33 years with The Dubliners, singer Ronnie Drew left the band on 10 December 1995 to pursue a solo career.
I had a great time and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Folk singer and guitarist Paddy Reilly best known for his 1984 hit ‘The Fields of Athenry’ has taken on the role of full-time lead-vocalist with The Dubliners.
At the Baggot Inn on Merrion Row, The Dubliners launch ‘Further Along’, their first album featuring Paddy Reilly on lead vocals. He joins band members Barney McKenna on banjo, fiddle player John Sheahan and guitarists Eamonn Campbell and Seán Cannon.
Paddy Reilly is more than ready to give up a successful solo career to join The Dubliners.
I figure at 56 I was due a career change.
Having spent much of the previous decade in America, he is relishing the prospect of touring in Europe with The Dubliners.
John Sheahan offers some advice to the new band member,
Take everything with moderation.
One of the attendees at the album launch is Ronnie Drew, who is still great friends with the band members,
There’s no unsolved rows or anything, everything is grand and I’m delighted to see the lads touring and I hope they keep her going.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 May 1996. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
