The Wolfe Tones

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Derek Warfield and Brian Warfield, Noel Nagle and Tommy Byrne today comprise the World's most popular Irish folk group, The Wolfe Tones.



But the Quartet's story wasn't one of overnight success. In fact the bones of the group first saw the light of day as far back as 1963.



It was then that thre neighbouring children from a quiet working-class Dublin suburb, Inchicore, brothers Brian and Derek and a pal Noel Nagle started playing round the fleadhs of Ireland more for fun than anything else. They used to get together at weekends playing Fleadh cheoils or music festivals, mainly as a pastime. Thoughts of fame and riches were a world apart.



Brian and Noel had taken tin whistle lessons at the Pipers Club in Thomas Street in Dublin, while Derek took up the mandolin for no better reason than his father played it.



During the summer of 1963 the four of them had hitch-hiked across Ireland, from Dublin to Kerry, for a weekend at a Fleadh Ceoil, an annual gathering of traditional Irish musicians where there's lashings of drink and non-stop music. The lads were really there for the beer although they did play and sing, but only for their own amusement.



Derek Warfield recalls what happened next: "I remember arriving in Killarney fairly late at night and looking around for somewhere to bed down. It was two o'clock in the morning as we trooped through the streets of the town and probably, because we had a few drinks in us, we started to play and sing. It was August and there were still some people on the streets. A few of them gathered around us as we sang and after a dozen tunes a fella with an American accent came up and asked us if we knew some song or other. We knew it - and played it for him.



It was later that year while they were waiting in a pub in the village of Kilrush, County Clare to catch a ferry across the estuary of the river Shannon to play in Ballybunnion, County Kerry that they named themselves "The Wolfe Tones". It was in honour of the 18th Century Irish Nationalist leader who was condemned to death by the occupying British forces but cheated the hangman the night before he was to be executed by cutting his own throat. The name and the symbol it evokes in Irish history and republicanism, has inspired them since.



courtesy of R.Warfield, www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com