Donnie Irish keeps the Wake alive at Mullaney’s
Carrying on a tradition that goes back more than 25 years, on Thursday night Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle will celebrate the life of poor Tim Finnegan.
A simple hod carrier who loved his whiskey, Tim died when he fell from a ladder while erecting a wall, and when laid out for mourners, who began to quarrel, he was revived by a splash of said whiskey to the face.
It’s the stuff of the 19th-century Irish ballad, “Finnegan’s Wake,” that would inspire James Joyce’s classic novel “Finnegans Wake” (without the apostrophe) and inspire Jim and Brian Corr, the Irish-born brothers of Pittsburgh’s Red Hand Paddy, to create and perform the annual ritual at Mullaney’s.
However, with Jim living in Ireland the past decade and Brian leaving Red Hand Paddy last year, RHP is cutting back on its activities, and the Wake, complete with pallbearers and grieving widow, is being passed on to the young Donnie Irish Band “to put the FUN back in funeral.”
“We were asked by Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle to perform the show due to Red Hand Paddy’s unavailability,” notes Donnie Irish frontman Ricky Manning. “I do not believe that we are ‘taking anything over,’ nor is that our intent, but we are filling the slot this year as a band. … [We’re] very excited to continue a tradition that Red Hand Paddy has long established.”
The Donnie Irish Band formed seven years ago, risking blasphemy in taking the name of a local rock legend in vain. It features Mr. Manning and bassist Justin Brown (both from Mark Pipas and the Sleaze), guitarist Chris Brenner and drummer Bill Gendron (Dallas Marks).
The concept, the singer says, was “to put a lot of rock and drive behind traditional Irish stuff,” but not necessarily in the punk way of the Pogues, Dropkick Murphys or our own Bastard Bearded Irishmen.
Donnie Irish has yet to meet its namesake Donnie Iris, but Manning says, “we hope he would be honored and slightly humored by the name.”
A Wake for Tim is at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle, 2329 Penn Ave., $5. Strip District. www.harpandfiddle.com
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Pittsburgh’s own Dublin-born busker Mark Dignam plays his sixth annual “The Calm Before The Storm” Friday at Club Cafe “with the aim of presenting a reverential treatment of traditional and contemporary Irish music, song and poetry.”
It will feature Nathan Zoob (of WreckLoose), Ben Shannon, Morgan Erina, Jess Hohman (of The Commonheart), Molly Alphabet and Chet Vincent along with poets Leslie Ann McIlroy and Robert Walicki.
Mr. Dignam notes that “this year will also feature some songs of rebellion … seemingly, for no particular reason.”
It begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15; www.clubcafelive.com.