Special TV tribute to Tom Mulloy

A SPECIAL 30-minute tribute to the late Tom Mulloy of the Mulloy Brothers ballad group from Mulranny will be broadcast on the iMayo TV programme on SKY TV tonight (Thursday, January 2).

It will feature footage of the original group, made up of Martin, Michael, Pat and Tom Mulloy, and trace their career over a 50-year period.

The tribute, compiled by presenter Henry McGlade, was first screened last June and is being rebroadcast by popular demand on SKY channel 192 and Freesat 161 at 7 p.m. Thursday, and it will be repeated on this Saturday, January 4, at 8 p.m. and on Tuesday, January 7, at 12.30 p.m.

Henry McGlade spoke to Tom’s son Enda in the kitchen of the family hone in Mulranny, overlooking Clew Bay.

He also spoke to Tom’s only remaining brother, Pat, as well as entertainer Seamus Moore who brought the group to Cricklewood in London in 1976 where he ran a pub for several years.

Others who paid tribute to Tom were John Nevin of Nevin’s of Tiernaur, Joe O’Malley of the Porterhouse in Westport, Joe Mellott of Swinford, John Daly of Mulranny and Dermot Madigan, general manager of Mulranny Park Hotel, where the group played regularly.

One of the highlights of Tom’s career came in 1969 when the group played for Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono when they were guests at the Great Western Hotel, Mulranny, now the Park Hotel.

When the group recorded their first album, The Coastline of Mayo, in 1979 the sleeve notes were written by Henry McGlade.

At the Mayo People of the Year awards in November, Tom Mulloy was honoured posthumously with a Hall of Fame award.