…… BILLY SUTER……
A MEMORIAL service celebrating the life of Blarney Brothers member, Damien McIlroy, will be held from 2.30pm today (Thursday, August 21) at Grace church in Riverside, Durban North. It will be followed by a wake at Crusaders club. All are welcome.
It was a very sad day for the entertainment world when it was announced that Damien McIlroy, a longtime member of the iconic Blarney Brothers band and father of Durban funnyman Aaron McIlroy, had died. He was 84 and had been in poor health.
Damien’s daughter, former actress Clare Skewis, wrote on her Facebook page: “Our amazing dad has left us. We love you and will miss you. I am glad you are at peace now. You will forever be a rock star in all of our minds. Love you dad!”
Damien, who had trained as an engineer in Ireland, had been a member of Irish singalong band, The Blarney Brothers, since the group formed in 1974 in Johannesburg, before moving to Durban. It also featured Damien’s late brother, Paul McIlroy (who passed away of lung cancer on December 16, 2023) and Tony Fisher.
Noted for countless hotel and club appearances countrywide, The Blarney Brothers featured Damien on guitar, Paul on piano, banjo and mandolin, and Tony on bass, fiddle and pennywhistle. All also sang.
Damien, who also enjoyed a successful career performing solo, had been living in Underberg with his wife in recent years.
The Blarney Brothers’ first engagement was a six-month contract from August 1974, performing six nights a week at Durban’s Astra Hotel in Russell Street. The band then played at the Pool Bar at the Lonsdale Hotel, then the Killarney Hotel, before performing on a cruise ship to Cape Town in 1976.
Later, the versatile trio landed a years-long deal with Southern Suns to join the hotel group’s national entertainment circuit. Who can forget their many successful stints at Durban’s Father’s Moustache, at the Malibu Hotel?
Paul McIlroy is on record as having once said: “We came in for a lot of publicity when we were invited to perform on the same bill as Pat Boone and his daughter, Debbie Boone, during their South African tour. This was in 1977, the year Debbie Boone hit the big time globally with You Light Up My Life”.
It wasn’t long after this that The Blarney Brothers made Durban their base and appeared regularly at The Barn at the Athlone Hotel, now the Riverside Hotel.
The group also had recording success, having released 13 albums, and starred in a seven-part TV series, You Don’t Have To Be Irish, which was shot over a month in Ireland and shown on SABC3 in 1986. Other highlights included tours to the UK, the Far East, Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Australia.
.....SoSuterBill..... 
Thank you Billy xxxx From Sue Sent from my iPhone
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So sad to hear. The Blarney Brothers were a Durban icon that brought Irishmen and women together no matter from which part of Ireland, North or South, that we originated. I remember on one particular evening in the 70’s when a group of Irish expats were at a Blarney Brothers St. Patricks celebration and they played traditional songs from both communities. In those days that would not have happened in Ireland without causing a riot 🙂 but these three wonderful men brought us all together over a few beers and wonderful music.
RIP Damien and our love and condolences to his family
Geoff and Jan Caruth
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I’m old enough to remember my young love of the Blarney Brothers in the late 1970’s. My sincere condolences to Aaron and his family. fond regards, Carolyn Higgs
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had some wonderful times and enjoyed singing with the band in Durban and Capetown
when our ship was in port early 70s. Sincere condolences to both families and to Tony Fisher
Joe Campbell.
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