Dermot O'brien

He has performed in every major theatre in England, Ireland and Scotland including several top of the bill appearances at the Royal Albert Hall, London. In the middle and late sixties, Dermot O'Brien and his band were one of the biggest draws in Ireland and were featured on records, radio and numerous T.V. shows. They toured regularly in England, Scotland, the United States, Canada, Germany and even in the United Arab emirates where they appeared for many years. In Scotland, where Dermot still tours once a year, he is known in that country of great accordion players as the "King of the Accordion". He has had many hit singles such as "The Galway Shawl", "The Old Claddagh Ring", "Spancil Hill", "Dublin '62" and more, including many instrumental hits. His biggest record success was of course "The Merry Ploughboy", which went straight to Number 1 in the Irish charts. To this day, only the Beatles and Elvis Presley have achieved this feat! Dermot has had his own T.V. Show on Irish T.V. for many years where it regularly topped the viewing ratings. He has also guested on many other shows including Irish language programs, as he is a keen Gaelic speaker. He has written many of his own songs, "Connemara Rose", "Farewell to Galway", "Dublin '62", "There Has To Be an End" etc. One of his compositions in Irish, "Neansai", won the International Pan-Celtic Song Contest in 1980. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists including: Paddy Reilly, Brendan Shine, Dermot Hegarty, Bridie Gallagher, Mary McGonigle and Daniel O'Donnell. Dermot has toured and shared the stage with Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Herman and recorded a St. Patrick's Day Special with Bing Crosby in Dublin, which was shown coast to coast in the United States. As well as performing, Dermot has over the years, found time to arrange and produce records for many Irish and Irish American artists, including: The Furey Brothers, Larry Cunningham, Dermot Hegarty, The Wolfe Tones, Johnny McEvoy, Philomena Begley, Ray Lynam, Dermot Henry, Mary McGonigle, Pat Roper, Noel Henry, Al Logan and many more. That these exalted names from the Irish music world have entrusted their recordings to Dermot is proof of his outstanding musical ability. In May 2001, Dermot was the subject of a documentary in the series "Laochra Gael" (GAA legends), shown on TG4 the Irish language TV station. The program traced his sporting and musical history with some very interesting clips, including one of his performance with Bing Crosby and Milo O'Shea. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.