- published: 20 Mar 2015
- views: 179020
Luke Kelly (Irish: Lúc Ó Ceallaigh; 17 November 1940 - 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer and folk musician from Dublin, Ireland, notable as a founding member of the band The Dubliners.
Luke Kelly was born into a working class family in Lattimore Cottages, 1 Sheriff Street, a quarter of a mile from Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street. His grandmother, who was a McDonald from Scotland, lived with the family until her death in 1953. His father worked all his life in Jacob's biscuit factory and enjoyed playing football. Both Luke and his brother Paddy played club Gaelic football and soccer as children.
He attended the Laurence O'Toole School as a child, and achieved very good grades in most subjects. In 1953 the Dublin Corporation moved the family to Larkhill near Whitehall when their flat was destroyed in a fire, but he continued to attend O'Toole's by taking a bus there every day. Luke left school at thirteen and after four years of odd-jobbing, he went to England in 1958. Working at steel fixing with his brother Paddy on a building site in Wolverhampton, he was sacked after asking for more money. He worked odd jobs from oil barrel cleaning to vacuum salesman.
Far and wide as the eye can wander
Heath and bog are everywhere
Not a bird sings out to cheer us
Oaks are standing, gaunt and bareChorus
We are the peatbog soldiers
We're marching with our spades
To the bog
Up and down the guards are pacing
No one, no one can go through
Flight would mean a sure death facing
Guns and barbed wire greet our view
But for us there is no complaining
Winter will in time be past
One day we shall cry rejoicing
"Homeland dear, you're mine at last!"Final Chorus
Then will the peatbog soldiers
March no more with spades