Six decades of music from Mick Delahunty
If you are not old enough to have danced to Mick Delahunty (affectionately known as ‘Mick Del’), there’s every chance your parents and/or grandparents did back in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Prior to the birth of the showbands, orchestras such as Maurice Mulcahy and Jimmy Wiley (both from Mitchelstown) and Mick Delahunty from Clonmel, along with west of Ireland bands Brose Walsh (from Castlebar) and Jack Ruane (from Ballina) and The Clipper Carlton from The North were the main players.
Mick Del grew up in the Old Bridge area of Clonmel, where he joined the local fife and drum band, playing the cornet. While working as a shop assistant in the town, he also played with a number of bands around the area by night, eventually moving from the cornet to the saxaphone.
An opportunity, albeit a rushed one, came his way in 1933 when a band pulled out of an engagement for a 1916 commemoration dance in nearby Cahir leaving the organisers in somewhat of a quandary. Mick put together a six-piece combination and we can assume the dance was a success. He soon began to build a reputation throughout Munster and in 1942, he jacked in the day job and turned fully professional.
Soon, the ‘Mick Delahunty Orchestra’ with 15/16 musicians on stage and playing the tunes of the American and British big bands such as Glen Miller and Joe Loss, was travelling all over Ireland. Dancers soon became accustomed to tunes such as ‘American Patrol’, ‘Cool Clear Water’ and ‘In The Mood’ to name just three - tunes Mick Del played right up until he eventually announced his retirement in 1991. The band’s farewell performance took place on the 29th of February 1992 in the Greenwood Inn, Ardpatrick - a venue where Mick Del had performed for the previous fifteen years on almost a fortnightly basis. While he didn’t play with the band on the night, he addressed the audience at its conclusion and, moments after leaving the stage, tragically he collapsed and died.
Of his music, Lawrence William White wrote: “Delahunty’s style exemplified the ‘ballroom of romance’ era of Irish mainstream entertainment” and “Devotees described the capacity of Delahunty’s music to transform a dingy provincial hall into a wonderland of magic and romance.” Many I’m sure would agree with those sentiments.
Scores of dancers from The Avondhu readership area came to know Mick Del practically on a personal level when they travelled religiously to ‘ The Showboat’ in Youghal where he played throughout the summer season. It was customary in those days that the band would meet the weekly Saturday night Showboat Express train from Cork city and parade the hordes of punters through the town to The Showboat.
His gentlemanly nature, his immense talent as a musician and his natural ability to chat with his faithful followers, ensured that the music of Mick Delahunty would entertain the people of Ireland for more than six decades.