Barney McKenna on 'contrary but kindhearted" Dubliner Ronnie Drew

'He was a contrary aul" devil but very kindhearted,' Barney McKenna says of his Dubliner"s compatriot, Ronnie Drew, at whose funeral he played at yesterday (Tuesday). Barney, who lives outside Trim, is the last surviving member of the original Dubliners line-up that got together in O"Donoghue"s Pub in Merrion Row over four decades ago, made up of himself, Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly and Ciaran Bourke. They were later joined by John Sheahan. 'Ronnie had an inimitable voice, and I"ve heard people this week rank him alongside Bob Dylan in his singing abilities,' Barney, whose family is originally from the Kildalkey Road, told the Meath Chronicle on Monday. Barney first linked up with Ronnie Drew at a ballad show in the Gate Theatre in the early 1960s, after Ronnie had returned from Seville in Spain where he had been teaching English for three years. 'He taught me how to play the flamenco guitar,' Barney recalls. 'I asked him how he learned to speak Spanish so well. He was living in Seville, one of the hottest parts of Spain in a valley, and said that you quickly had to learn how to speak Spanish in order to get a drink of any sort, as it was so dry there.' Ronnie was a great speaker of Spanish and lover of the Spanish culture, Barney said. He recalled that Ronnie was always well dressed and looking his best, and chastised him once on a UK tour, in Birmingham, for looking a bit scruffy. 'So I put on a lovely striped shirt, and he looked at it, and said 'that"s more like it". Then, we went in to change after the gig, back into our day clothes, and Ronnie couldn"t find his shirt, a striped shirt he wore casually. He then discovered that the shirt he had brought as a day shirt was the same I was wearing for the show! It was an example of how well dressed he was.' Barney, a banjo, mandolin and melodeon player, said that Ronnie Drew was a great exponent of the works of the 18th century Dublin composer and poet, 'Zozimus", Michael Moran. Many of his rhymes had religious themes, whereas others were political or recounted recent events. 'Ronnie, like Luke, had a very tough looking exterior, but was very warmhearted and decent,' Barney said as he prepared for the singer"s funeral Mass in Greystones, where he took part in the ceremony. McKenna, Drew, Bourke and Kelly began playing together in 1962 in O"Donoghue"s Pub in Merrion Row in Dublin, and were later joined by fiddler John Sheahan. Originally called the Ronnie Drew Group, they changed their name to The Dubliners later in 1962, and had a big break five years later when 'Seven Drunken Nights" became a hit in the UK charts after constant playing by Radio Caroline. It failed to chart in Ireland as it was banned by RTE. A hit followed with 'Black Velvet Band". Ronnie took a break from touring in the 1970s to rear his family with his wife Deirdre, who died last year, while Ciaran Bourke suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1974 and was never to perform with them again, passing away in 1988. Luke Kelly died in 1980, having continued to tour through ill-health, and names like Bob Lynch, Jim McCann, Sean Cannon and Eamonn Campbell later became associated with The Dubliners. The group enjoyed success with a new generation when 'The Irish Rover", a duet with The Pogues, became a hit 20 years ago, and in 1995, Ronnie left The Dubliners to pursue a solo career, where he continued to enjoy success before being diagnosed with illness two years ago. One of his most recent stage performances was alongside Kilmessan singer and actor, Killian Donnelly, in a Gaiety Theatre pantomime production of 'Cinderella" during Christmas 2003.