Gay Byrne compared Ned’s great voice to Matt Munroe

THE SINGING BARBER OF DYER STREET PERFORMED ON THE SAME BILL AS THE WOLFE TONES AND PATRICK O’HAGAN

NED BRISCOE may suffer from muscular dystrophy. But for Drogheda’s most famous singing barber that’s no handicap.

It hasn ‘ t stopped him cutting a reputation for himself at his Dyer Street shop, where from a wheelchair he happily plies his barber’s trade.

Ned (pictured) has only recently taken to the chair on the advice of doctors in order to give his limbs a rest following a course of hospital treatment.

“Hopefully it’s only a temporary thing,” says Ned. “I’m determined to get back on my feet again. Meantime, I must be the only barber in the country who cuts hair from a wheelchair.” And if you’re lucky while you’re having a trim as an added bonus you may get a verse or two of Frank Ifield’s “The Wayward Wind” or Perry Como’s “For the Good Time”.

Como is Ned’s favourite singer and he was a barber too.

“I’ve been singing since I was seven,” says the 33-year-old Ned. He has performed on the same stage as the Wolfe Tones and Patrick O’Hagan. Gay Byrne compared his voice to that of Matt Monroe, a leading exponent of the love ballad.

It was Patrick O’Hagan, the one-time Drogheda publican and father of Eurovision star Johnny Logan who first launched Ned onto his singing career. Ned did the show circuit with O’Hagan, himself a well-known tenor, who would introduce Ned in the middle of his act.

Since then the bard of Dyer Street has become a familiar sight on the Drogheda cabaret, concert and wedding circuit, where his velvet voice is always in keen demand.

Ned has a clutch of trophies and prizes under his belt for his singing. During the last 10 years he won joint first in the Stairway to the Stars talent competition, was voted Entertainer of the Year in the Drogheda Civic Week, and was awarded a special trophy in the Passage to Stardom, where he qualified for the finals five years running.

His proudest moment came when he was invited to sing for Cardinal O Fiaich during the conferring of the freedom of Drogheda celebrations in the Star and Crescent last year.

The Cardinal beamed as Ned gave his best with “Amazing Grace”, “Bless This House” and “Love Thee Dearest”. Afterwards the primate called Ned over to his table and they chatted for a time. “It was a great moment for me,” confesses Ned. Recently he took part in several charity shows for the Drogheda Wheelchair Association organised by Oliver Murphy.

“I sang everywhere. Where did I not sing?” says Ned. Indeed he has travelled far since those childhood years as a boy soprano in St. Peter’s Choir or as one of the “three little girls in blue” in a school concert - the other “girls” were Noel Gerard and Olan Alan. Ned was born in the Cottage Hospital, just across the road from his home at St. Mark’s Terrace where he lives with his parents. He was educated on the same street in St. Patrick’s National School. In his youth he was a founder member of the Drogheda Youth Club.

Ned is 17 years in barbering. He served his time with Joe Corcoran in Scarlet Street, worked on the first unisex salon in Ireland at Malahide and did a stint in Stillorgan Shopping Centre, one of the country’s first shopping complexes.

He came to Dyer Street to work for John Brady and finally took over the shop from him to run himself about 12 years ago. He has never looked back. Since Ned began to use a wheelchair he is shocked by the lack of facilities and consideration for handicapped people in Drogheda.

For instance, footpaths full of lumps and bumps; drivers who won’t stop to let you cross the road; steps everywhere into buildings to bar the way of the wheelchair user, and no ramps.

Seeing that 1981 is the Year of the Handicapped, Ned is appealing to Drogheda Corporation, motorists and owners of buildings used by the public to spare a thought for the person in the wheelchair.

He is philosophical about life and believes in living it one day at a time. “You have to keep going. Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again,” he muses, quoting the words of an American song.