Barney McKenna from The Dubliners was the "jovial" part of The Dubliners. As Luke once quipped "if we didn't have Barney, we would have to invent him." I personally think that that sums him up completely. Anyway, here is the story of his' life'.
Barney McKenna was born Bernard Noel McKenna in Donnycarny, Dublin on the 16th of December 1939. He played the Tenor Banjo which he was most-famed for, but also played the 5 string banjo, mandolin and melodeon. He bought the Tenor Banjo at a young age, when he could not buy the instrument he wanted, due to him not being able to afford it; a mandolin. He described himself as a "smasher" of instruments, and broke the strings on his' uncles' mandolin'. He applied to join the Irish Army Band, but was rejected due to poor eyesight. He was a member of The Chieftains in 1962 with Paddy Moloney but stated "I was bound to be a Chieftain, but grew a beard and became a Dubliner!". Barney tuned his' tenor-banjo an octave below the Mandolin to GDAE, and was resposnible for making it the standard in Irish folk and trad music. Barney was an audience favourite in The Dubliners and The Dubliners stated that he was a "funny fella". In The Dubliners he often recited various stories and funny little anecdotes which only made sense to him. These were called "Barneyisms", and they were collected by fellow-Dublin Jim Mccann in a book called "An Obstacle Confusion--The Wonderful World of Barney McKenna." Here is an example:-"(When in a studio) Which one of these (gestures to knobs on the recording table) is the rev counter for the banjo?"
Barney was an extremely funny and talented man, and was famed for his' banjo solos' in The Dubliners and singing such songs as "South Australia" and "Fiddlers Green". He was features in The Ballad of Ronnie Drew, that was made in 2008 for his' throat cancer'. In 2006, McKenna suffered a mild stroke, which caused difficulty walking and him not being so steady on the auld-feet and being blind in one eye. Despite this, he kept playing the banjo, but got a 17 fret Dave Boyle banjo to make playing a bit easier. In 2012, on The Dubliners 50th Anniversary Tour, he passed out and suffered a heart attack whilst drinking tea with a friend in his' house' in Howth, County Dublin and was pronounced dead. He was 72 years old. Barney Mckenna 1939-2012.