On November 7, 1990, the world lost Tom Clancy to stomach cancer, aged 66. Clancy left behind a wife, son, and five daughters, the youngest of whom was just two years old . The traditional music world was shaken by the loss of one of the Clancy siblings, who strode to fame Aran-sweater-clad during the 1960s, alongside their friend Tommy Macken.
In tribute to Tom and to his brothers Paddy (died 1998, aged 76), Bobby (died 2001, aged 76) and Liam (died 2009, aged 74) we look back on the magic of the Clancy Brothers and their influence on music in America with this article republished courtesy of our sister publication, Irish America magazine . As Liam Clancy remembers it, being asked to perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show" did not seem like a big deal. “We just did not understand the significance,” he told Irish America in a recent interview, during a publicity tour to promote a brilliant re-release of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem performing live at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1963.
Two years before that historic performance, as Clancy recalls, they were a group of slightly shady characters best known in that bohemian redoubt, Greenwich Village. “Irish Americans weren’t really interested in us,” said Liam, the youngest of the Clancy brothers. “Pete Seeger played with us.
A lot of people said: ‘They’ve got a Communist up there.’ So most of our audience were folkies and liberal Jews.” That all changed in March of 1961.
The Clancys and Makem had alre.
