Sweeney's Men
| Sweeney's Men | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Folk, Traditional Irish |
| Years active | 1966–1969, 2012-present |
| Labels | Pye, Transatlantic |
| Members | |
| Past members |
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Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the mid-1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and "Galway Joe" Dolan.
Before creating the band in 1966, Irvine, Moynihan and Dolan had met in Dublin and had performed and travelled together, on and off, around Ireland; Irvine and Dolan hitch-hiked together around Europe (Munich, Vienna and Rome) in late 1965.
The name 'Sweeney's Men' was inspired by Joe Dolan's reading of Flann O'Brien's comic novel At Swim-Two-Birds, which depicts the mad, anti-religious, tree-leaping pagan King Sweeney of Antrim.
The band's manager was Eamonn O'Doherty, and he and the band traveled in a red WV van. The band often traveled to Milton Malbay to enjoy musical sessions with the piper Willie Clancy. The early days of the band have been described by Andy Irvine in his song "My heart's tonight in Ireland".
In June 1967, Dolan decided to travel to Israel to fight in the Six-Day war and was replaced by Terry Woods. Woods who played the 12-string guitar, had traveled in the US and studied the American folk tradition brought an American musical influence to the group.
At the time, they played the bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, tin whistle, harmonica, concertina and 5-string banjo. This line-up recorded their first full-length album, Sweeney's Men in 1968.
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