When Irish America saw itself on Ed Sullivan

How the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem became stars in their Aran sweaters

As soon as you heard the songs and saw the sweaters you knew something was up. These weren’t jugglers, acrobats, comedians, actors or opera stars on the Ed Sullivan Show. These were real Irishmen singing rebel songs: Brennan On The Moor, The Wild Colonial Boy and The Rising of the Moon.

The date was March 9, 1961. America wouldn’t meet the Beatles on the same show on Sunday night on CBS for another three years. Call this The Irish Invasion.

On that night, the Clancy Brothers from Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary plus Tommy Makem from Co. Armagh (CB & TM) would plant the flag of a different kind of Irish revolution on the stage at 1697 Broadway, the Ed Sullivan Theater.

For a man in Donegal who sold Aran sweaters knitted by local women, it was a life-changing experience. Liam Clancy says that years later he received a letter from the knitwear manufacturer. Business was so bad, he was preparing to emigrate. But then, the Irish sweater craze happened after CB & TM appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sales took off and he was able to remain in Donegal, marry his sweetheart and with her create a large family. 

True or not, it’s a great story. As is the one about Aran sweater sales increasing by 700% in the weeks after that first appearance on Ed Sullivan.

Ireland begins to make its mark on American culture

A new awareness among Irish Americans dawned the night CB & TM first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. And it almost didn’t happen. Pearl Bailey, a Broadway and vaudeville star, was supposed to headline that night. But she had to cancel. Could the Irishmen take her place? They could and did. A four-minute, two-song set became a 15-minute headline routine with five songs and some fun chatter seen by 40 million Americans. (As years went by, their appearance expanded in print to a 20-minute set seen by 80 million Americans.) 

When Ed Sullivan liked an act he made sure they returned. CB & TM would appear at least four more times. By the middle of the 1960s they were “The most famous four Irishmen in the world.”

When they performed, they always wore the sweaters their mother Johana had knitted for them because she was hearing in Ireland how the winter of 1960 in New York City was wicked cold. When the sweaters arrived their manager insisted they wear them on stage. (This was when musical acts still got dressed up. Look at the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.) 

Marty Erlichman was the manager with the sense to dress CB & TM for success. He had another request. Would they consider letting his newest client - promising young singer - open for them at one of their night club shows in New York?

They would. Barbara Streisand was well received by the crowd that was there to hear rebel songs.

They were much more popular in America than they were in Ireland.( They were the musical equivalent of the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in that regard.) In fact, since the Ed Sullivan show wasn’t shown in Ireland, no one there saw those performances that made their name and assured their fame. It was more  than a year after their television debut that an Irish dj visiting New York brought some of their Columbia label records home and started playing them on RTE.

Familiar Irish songs sounded different when played by CB & TM. Irish America magazine suggested the formula. “They infused traditional Irish songs of rebellion and revelry with strands of fast-paced American folk, the improvised feel of jazz and the banter of comedians and beat poets.” Irish people in Ireland were reportedly surprised because they had never heard the songs played the way CB & TM were playing them.

CB & TM were in the right place at the right time.The 1960s were heady times for Irish Americans. The decade began with one of our’s in the White House. Tommy Makem had a favorite line he used at every concert, “Hail Mary, full of Grace - the Masons are in second place.”

All members of the original group are dead now. Liam, who Bob Dylan once called “just the best ballad singer I’ve ever heard in my life,” passed away in 2009. In a documentary about him (The Life and Times of Liam Clancy) he talked about being almost famous in New York City in the mid-1950s “with “folkies and liberal Jews.” Then, one of Ed Sullivan’s talent scouts saw them perform at the Blue Angel on East 55th street and signed them on the spot for that first appearance.

“But once we got on the Ed Sullivan Show, it was like getting a blessing from the Pope. He (Sullivan) was looked up to by all the Irish,” said Liam.

They sold millions of records over the years. The Live albums always sold the best. Their legacy is the influence they had on Irish artists like  the Wolfe Tones, the Dubliners and Christy Moore. But they never reached the heights of popularity to match the adulation they received after the appearances on CBS on Sunday nights. The Beatles came along in February of 1964 with an appearance on Ed Sullivan and rock and roll ruled the airwaves evermore.