Glenroe’s Miley topped the chart for five straight weeks

Irish soaps are not renowned for spin-off hit singles, but almost a quarter of a century ago RTE’s Glenroe delivered a hit that spent five consecutive weeks on top of the Irish charts.

It came from an unlikely source: farmer Miley Byrne in the long-running and highly successful series set in the fictional rural village of Glenroe and running weekly on the channel since September 1983.

In a somewhat strange storyline, Miley (Mick Lally) ended up in a recording studio laying down a track as a romantic gift to wife Biddy (Mary McEvoy).

The song’s lyrics were penned by Glenroe creator and writer Wesley Burrowes who many years earlier had contributed the lyrics to “If I Could Choose”, Ireland’s 1967 Eurovision entry performed by Sean Dunphy.

“The Byroad To Glenroe” single benefited hugely from both the popularity of the TV series (which, at its height, achieved nearly one million viewers) and lovable character Miley. The single’s B-side was the Glenroe theme song, arranged and performed by Jim Lockhart of Horslips fame.

The single prevented Madonna’s “Vogue” from reaching number one in Ireland and then denied Irish band Something Happens a chart-topping single with “Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello”.

Its run at the top eventually came to an end on May 13 when Liam Harrison and The Goal Celebrities rocketed to the top with “Give It A Lash Jack” as World Cup fever gripped the nation. That week, for the first time since the Irish chart launched in 1962, the top seven songs were all by Irish artists.

Mick Lally did not revisit the Irish charts. One of Ireland’s best-known actors, he had a successful career on stage, TV and film. A founding member of the Druid Theatre Company, he was a fluent Irish speaker and appeared in a number of Irish language productions.

Glenroe, filmed in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow, and generally broadcast every Sunday night, was cancelled in 2001 after 18 years on Irish TV screens.

Mick Lally died aged 64 on August 31, 2010, after a short stay in hospital.The cause of death was reported as heart failure arising from an underlying emphysema condition.