Showband Heroes Ep 3: Pat Kelly

Showband Heroes - ‘Remembering when we danced together’ Episode 3 features Pat Kelly, whose career spans over fifty years; playing with some of Ireland’s most popular bands, including The Cowboys, Tweed, Louise Morrissey, Mick Flavin, Michael English and Robert Mizzell, among others. Here, Pat gives a unique and fascinating insight into The Showband era and why country music, in particular, still endures, almost unchanged, over the years. In 2020, TaRP recorded a number of online events in its limited series, ‘Music - A Bridge over Troubled Waters’. The response left the producers in no doubt that music could re-connect, reawaken and re-invigorate the common, cross-community bond that endured even through our darkest days. For that series, musicians were drawn mainly from the folk/acoustic genre but, this time, the focus is on the Showbands who entertained mixed audiences from the early Sixties through to the late Seventies; many of whom still attract large audiences to dancehalls and concerts. Ironically, Showbands remained the unsung heroes of their time but, now, their priceless legacy is finally being acknowledged and honoured. Produced and presented by Stephen Travers Online Producer: Tracy Dempsey Executive Producer: Eugene Reavey Co-Executive Producer: Joe Campbell ‘Showband Heroes’ is a Truth and Reconciliation Platform project, recorded via The Miami Showband Peace Centre Online, and supported by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. For more information about Truth and Reconciliation Platform please visit www.tarp.global