Joe and Mary got married in January 1967, at around the time of the well-remembered Irish farmers crisis, which included nationwide protests about rising prices and a blocking of the bridge of Athlone.

Mary was a member of a traditional music family, and was the sister of the late tin-whistle All-Ireland champion, Tom McHale, who in the 1970s ran the Athlone Folk Club from the Jolly Mariner. One night in the Crescent ballroom, Joe met Mary McHale from Tulsk, Co. In 1965, the Saints expanded to an eight piece which included three new members, Frankie McDonald, Liam Meade and Brian Sullivan – all of whom became local household names. It was reckoned at one stage in the 1960s there were 600 showbands around.

The Saints Showband was hugely successful and travelled widely, although they were competing with hundreds of other showbands throughout Ireland. “We did many gigs including the Trinity College ball and we put on shows on stage as well as play the music, like what other new showbands were also doing and we created atmospheric candlelight dinner dances.” “We saw it dying and the coming of the showbands and all the bands everywhere had to cut back and we became a five-piece showband, Syd and the Saints, with Syd on piano, Frank Somers on drums, Finbarr O’Keefe on trumpet and Pete Keighery on lead guitar and myself on vocals and bass,” said Joe. However the days of fourteen or fifteen piece big bands was coming to an end by the mid 1950s due to coming of the Showbands, beginning with the Clipper Carlton Showband from Strabane, Co. “His voice was like a musical instrument, and he sang brilliantly in tune with the large group of musicians, who were all great readers of music,” said the late Syd Shine about Joe in an interview in 2004. Last week Joe Flynn told of his time in Athlone soccer during the 1950s, and his first steps into music with the Friary Choir in 1947, and the many local bands that he played in until he joined Syd Shine’s big band.Īfter Joe joined the Crescent Big Band in the early 1950s, which was led by Syd Shine, he regularly played on Thursday and Sunday nights at the Ballymahon Road venue.

Saints row 3 music