The extra star of the Black family Patty mother of musicians Mary, Frances, Martin, Michael and Shay.
Patty Black is no stranger to being on 'The Late Late Show'. When her daughter, the singer Frances Black, appeared on the show, Patty Black performed a song from her seat in the audience. The next day at mass Patty Black was treated like a celebrity and called,
The extra star of The Black Family.
In 1986 Patty and her late husband Kevin were in 'The Late Late Show' audience when The Black Family, their children Mary, Frances, Martin, Michael and Shay performed. Kevin Black came from a musical family on Rathlin Island and played the mandolin.
Patty Black was born in Weavers Square in Dublin and brought up in Donore Avenue. She was always singing. When she worked in a factory, she would lead her colleagues in song while they worked.
When Patty and Kevin married, they lived in a flat in Dublin's Charlemont Street and ran Black's General Grocers. There was always music, song, and dance in their home.
Patty Black sings 'A Bird in the Gilded Cage', a 1900 song composed by Arthur J Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer. The lyrics tell the tale of a beautiful woman who married for money instead of love. Patty Black lightens the mood with a humourous song from 1929 'The Return of the Gay Caballero' by Frank Crumit.
Diagnosed with an enlarged heart as a child, Patty Black will be celebrating her 80th birthday in March 1996,
I shoud be dead years ago.
Frances and Martin Black, watching from the audience, come on stage to join their mother. Patty Black has spent so many occasions in the audience watching her children, she is delighted to see the tables turned.
You know I'm waiting for this to come for years.
This episode of 'The Late Late Show' was broadcast on 26 May 1995. The presenter is Gay Byrne.
