Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.

Subject: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:44 PM

Has anyone here heard of him?

I am interested in knowing a bit more about his history.

All I know at the moment is that he is/was one of the last true travelling singers of Ireland.

His songs talk of the hardship and the joy to be found on the open road.

He is known for such beauties as "The maximatosis Rabbit", and a cruel version of "The Black Velvet Band", entitled "The Old Morris Van", in which he beds various unsuspecting lasses and is arrested for fornicating in public.

His serious side is hard, honest, and pulls no punches.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:54 PM

The Pecker Dunne did make some albums; he is a brilliant musician, and someone just told me that one of his albums might be available as a two-LPs-on-one-CD deal with Margaret Barry, a travelling woman who recorded in the 1960s.

He might be contactable through Pavee Point, the Dublin centre for travelling people: http://www.iol.ie/~pavee/ or e-mail: [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:58 PM

Cheers Guvnor

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:04 PM

http://indigo.ie/~mulligan/bi.html: Mulligan Records, Margaret Barry & Pecker Dunne Travellin' People œ6.99 (equivalent to about $10)

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:05 PM

Oh, and it's on the Claddagh list too:

http://indigo.ie/~claddagh/page1.htm

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:09 PM

œ6.99 will do me fine.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,paddy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:39 PM

Seems to me there was a banjo player busking on the streets of Cork in the late 60's/early 70's by the name of Pecker Dunne.....

Don't know if this is who you're looking for or not.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 06:38 PM

Yep.

Pecker Dunne played banjo alright.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Brendy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 06:42 PM

Oh now, the Pecker's a gas man. Sure you wouldn't know where where ye'd bump into that fella!

The last of a rare stock.

B.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Jimmy C
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 06:45 PM

Pecker Dunne also played fiddle as well as banjo. He was part of a show caled the "Gatecrsahers" with Paddy Reilly back in late 60's. He hails from Co Wexford and is a "Traveller" or Tinker. His family were not made welcome on parts of Wexford which lead Pecker top write some scathing songs about tht county. He looks more like a Mexican Border Bandit from the 1840's - I have a few photos of him. Quite a character. Back in the late 60's some friends camped outside Galway in the dark, In the morning there was a sort of an abandoned tent close by, only it was not abandoned but occupied by Pecker Dunne.

He is quite a character.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 07:22 PM

It's interesting that travelling musicians are so revered in Irish culture, and that so much Irish music is devoted to stories of the travelling man, and that songs like "The wild rover" are sung in Karaoke bars from the meditterannean to south east Asia.

Irelands history of enforced poverty gave birth to thousands of travelling men and women, first within Ireland, then in search of newer lands overseas. Some of them had no choice at all and were used as slaves in Australia and the carribbean.

Someone like Pecker Dunne is appealing to the Irish psyche because he represents the Irishman who feels like an outsider in his own land.

".....all you young people
now here's some advice
before crossing the water
you'd better think twice
Cos you can't live without love
without love alone
and the proofs around london
in the nobody zone

Where the summer is fine
but the winter's a fridge
wrapped up in old cardboard
under charing cross bridge
And I'll never go home now
because of the shame
of a misfits reflection
in a shop window pane......

(from "missing you" by Christy Moore)

Subject: Lyr Add: SULLIVAN'S JOHN
From: GUEST,Paddy(1)
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:01 PM

Here are the words of a song from memory, attributed to the same Pecker Dunne (I remember seeing him in the flesh as far back as 1968, never knew what became of him)

SULLIVAN'S JOHN

Sullivan's John to the road you've gone
Far away from your native home
You've gone with a tinker's daughter
All along the road to roam
Sullivan's John, sure you won't stick it long
Till your belly will soon get slack
As you go the road with your mighty load
And your toolbox on your back.

I met Katie Caffrey with her neat baby
Behind on her back strapped on
She had an ould ash plant all in her hand
For to drive her donkey on.
Enquiring at every farmer's house
As along the road she'd pass
Ah, where would you get an ould pot to mend
Or where would you swop an ass.

At the hairy ass fair in the county Clare
In a place they call Spancil Hill
There my brother James, got a belt of a hames(? spelling)
And poor Paddy they tried to kill.
The loaded him up on an ass and cart
[Can't remember this bit] . . . in his hand,
Oh bad cess to the day I went away
To join with the tinker's band.

Paddy(1)

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Brendy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:30 PM

Nice one, Paddy.

B.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,Paddy(1)
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:36 PM

No Brendy, all credit to the Pecker, and a carpenter I once worked with who knew the word to milloions of songs (and all their parodies!). God rest his soul.

Paddy(1)

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Brendy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:46 PM

Indeed Paddy.
I was thinking of Sullivan's John, myself, just then, but the words are not in the DT, and I didn't know all of them, myself.

I'm delighted you posted them; you sort of read my mind. It's the song that you mostly associate with him.
I used to run into him from time to time in the late '70's, early '80's. And as I said before, he's a gas man. You could listen to him for hours.

B.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,Paddy(1)
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:49 PM

He used to do sessions in Ballybunion way back then and I often met him walking the cliffs between gigs.

A larger than life character, he has probably stopped performing by now.

Paddy(1)

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Brendy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:59 PM

Well, Paddy(1), he was spotted at the National League Hurling Final between Waterford and Tipp in May 1998, by all accounts. Here is an article from The Munster Express, dated May 28 1998. I can't find anything more recent, yet.

B.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 09:15 PM

Ah, Culture!

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Brendy
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 09:27 PM

I suppose it would be, if it were between Waterford and Tipp. Turns out, it was between Waterford and Cork,

Difficult to classify that!!!

But of course, anywhere the Pecker goes, culture's not far away.

B.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 12:43 AM

I ran across this Pecker Dunne website:

http://www.wide-eyed.demon.co.uk/traveller.htm

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Lox
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 08:51 AM

Guest Nick,

What can I say....

Cheers Guv!

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Airto
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 09:01 AM

Thanks for posting that link, Nick.

Pecker Dunne, to judge from his photos, is certainly a character. There's obviously some people out there who rate him hugely.

Missing You, by the way, was written by Jimmy McCarthy. Several other McCarthy songs have come to be associated with Christy Moore, such as Ride On and The Mad Lady and Me.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: derrymacashatwork
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 11:15 AM

The words to the final verse (at least as sung by my dad who reputedly knew the Pecker from various Fleadhs) go ...

There's a hairy ass fair in the County Clare in a place they call Spancil Hill Where my brother James took up a rap on the hames and poor Paddy they tried to kill They bundled him up on an ass and a car while Big Kate and Wee Mary looked on Bad luck to the day that you went away to join with the tinker clan

Sweeney's Men recorded a version on their eponymous first album.

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,NIck
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 04:13 PM

I thought I'd refresh this since I ran across a "Best of Pecker Dunne" CD at the below link:

http://www.scottish-irish.com/asp/viewitem.asp?id=2438

On the subject of the Gatecrasher's, there is a fairly hard to find album (recorded live at the Gate in Dublin) with Pecker, Paddy Reilly (as stated above), Danny Doyle and Shay Healy. I believe it's Paddy Reilly first record. It's worth a listen.

Nick

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 04:41 PM

I remember reading in Irish Music mag that the Pecker Dunne had been given a teaching post, I think at Cork, Sean laffey may remember, or there should be some info somewhere on the web about him recently

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 04:49 PM

not Cork, Limerick - Artist in Residence for 2002

here's an announcement

Pecker Dunne Artist in Residence

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Pecker Dunne Singer & banjo-player Pecker Dunne was born into a travelling family in Wexford in 1933. He started his playing career on a fiddle he made himself. He busked widely in Ireland, England and France and is widely known around Ireland. He has wirtten many songs, perhaps the best-known of which is Sullivan's John which was made famous by the ground-breaking traditional band Sweeney's Men. For the past 20 years or so he could be heard singing and playing the banjo in Killarney and at Munster Final day in Thurles. He featured in the film Trojan Eddie with Richard Harris and Stephen Rea. Nowadays he lives in Killimer Co Clare and plays regularly with his teenage children, all of whom are talented traditional players on various instruments. His albums include Travellin' People from Ireland, with the legendary Margaret Barry and others on the Mulligan label which was re-released as The Very Best of Pecker Dunne in 2001. In November 2001, he was a special guest at La´ na nAmhra´n, the IWMC's annual celebration of traditional song and performed as part of that event at the Limerick City Gallery of Art. He was also one of the featured artists at the NOMAD concert at the University Concert Hall Limerick in September 2001. He is artist-in-residence at the Irish World Music Centre for 2002 as part of the HEA-funded NOMAD Project at the University of Limerick. (See further details on the NOMAD project in the 'Bealach' section of this brochure)

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Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: beachcomber
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 05:43 PM

Yes , I too remember meeting the "Pecker" Dunne back in the mid 60s. It was at a festival (Of drinking) in Kilkenny, in a now newly named pub , then called the"Jug of Punch" when he would intermittently come in and be given the use of the small stage where , normally, the bar-men would get up a do some ballad singing between pints etc,. As a matter of fact the pub was owned I believe, by the late Bobby Clancy and most of the bar men were "clancy" relatives.

Pecker was camping on the Waterford road near Kilkenny FC's Buckley Park entrance I remember. I often saw his tent there on other occasions down the years.

He played a zither type of five string banjo with a plastic ferrule on a finger, which he used to strum accompaniment and sometimes picked a melody with it also, an unusual style I trhought. I believe Margaret Barry also favoured that instrument and style, am I correct??

He is a big rough looking bloke but , in my few short conversations with him, I found him to be a natural gentleman who, back then, had quite a way with the women.

I remember RTE did a feature programme on him and his young family a few years ago. It was terrific to see all the lit5tle ones playing various instruments. "Pecker" obviously was well aware of his tradition and the value of it, especially to an earlier time.

beach

Subject: RE: Pecker Dunne - alias; The Pecker.
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 07:46 PM

I had the pleasure of meeting Pecker and his lovely family in Millstreet, Co. Cork in the summer of 1999, I think. We started up a big session up in Murrays pub and it's one of my favourite musical memories. He and his family used to stay in his caravan for the summer just outside Millstreet and play the streets of Killarney. When the season was over they would pack up and head back to the house in Killimer for the winter. He has a million stories and has never kept any secrets about his drinking habits which were legendary but it's many years now since he touched a drop. He is a real gentleman with a lovely wife and his talented children are a credit to him. His voice was a little rusty but full of character and his banjo playing was tops. I heard that he had been very ill last summer but has now recovered. I'm going back back to Ireland on Friday and , if my health permits, I should be in Millstreet around the start of next week. The local postman, Noel Keating, has been friends and musical partner with Pecker for years, so he should be able to fill me in on the very latest news. Watch this space...............