Athlone man's radio documentary is RTE documentary of the day

The story of the 'banned' song of an Athlone showband and the farmers' protests of the 1960s is being retold in a RTE radio documentary being repeated today.

The Broken Hearted Farmer is narrated by Athlone journalist David Flynn who also produced the documentary with Sarah Knox.

Ireland was a fairly lively place in the mid-1960s. Television was still new and the main programmes were ‘The Late Late Show,’ ‘The Showband Show’, ‘Tolka Row’, and ‘The Riordans’ and the country, and indeed beyond was bouncing to the sounds of the Irish showbands.

Falling farm incomes and a belief that agriculture was losing ground to industry, resulted in the farmers taking protests to the streets.

Many countrywide demonstrations followed, including in Athlone, where farmers blockaded the town’s bridge, in a move of defiance against the powers of the time.

Joe Flynn was lead singer with The Saints Showband, which was based in Athlone. Showband musicians were faithful to a lot of the old Irish music, and Joe came up with the idea of recording the old Delia Murphy number, ‘Dan O’Hara’, to a completely new arrangement song, which told the story about a major current affair. The song was called, ‘The Broken Hearted Farmer’.

At that time, all was not well with Irish farmers, who had taken to rebelling against prices, and were marching upon the Dail. There were many countrywide protests, including in Athlone, where farmers blockaded the town’s bridge, in a move of defiance against the powers of the time.

Joe’s wife, Mary Flynn, who was a member of the McHale traditional music family from Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, was asked to write the lyrics of the song, which The Saints recorded.

In return, Mary was invited to travel with the group on one of their American tours.

The Saints had a successful tour of the US in May 1967, and they brought the record with them and it was played on New York radio. The group were hopeful that this song would put them into the big league of showbands like the Royal and the Miami, and the record company was sure of a No 1 hit.

However there was a delay in the record being released by the record company. Later, Joe, Mary and The Saints showband, were told that the song was banned by RTE Radio. The group believed it was because the song had been seen as sympathetic to the farmer’s cause.

Due to ‘The Broken Hearted Farmer’, ‘The Saints’ were shot to national and international prominence. The British newspapers, ‘The Daily Express’, ‘The Daily Mirror’ and others became interested in the band, and sought out interviews with the writer, Mary Flynn.

Mary was at home with her family in Tulsk, Co. Roscommon while the band was on their first tour of 1967, and was surprised but delighted to be interviewed by entertainment reporters, who would generally be interested in the happenings of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. She later toured with the group on their follow-up tour in November 1967, as gratis for writing ‘The Broken Hearted Farmer’.

Joe Flynn is still in music playing with his old time danceband, ‘Showcase’, and he and Mary now have grandchildren.

Here is Joe playing 'The Broken Hearted Farmer' in 2016 with the Late Late Show band The Camembert Quartert.

The radio documentary, ‘The Broken Hearted Farmer’ seeks out the story of what happened to this showband and their ‘banned song’ in 1967. It features sounds of the showband music of the time, including a brand new version of the Broken Hearted Farmer from Joe Flynn, featuring the Camembert Quartet. Farmers of the time are also featured, telling their stories of the protests, and about what led up to the stand-off with the government at the time.

‘The Broken Hearted Farmer’ was first broadcast on Saturday, July 23, 2016 and today, Monday, May 24, is the featured Doc of the Day on RTE Radio 1, as part of the ‘Documentary on One’ series. Listen to the documentary here:

https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2016/0715/802592-the-broken-hearted-farmer/