Finbarr Donnelly facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Finbarr Donnelly
Donnelly in the late 1980s
Background information
Birth name	Finbarr Donnelly
Born	(1962-04-25)25 April 1962 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	18 June 1989(1989-06-18) (aged 27) Hyde Park, London
Genres	Post-punk
Occupation(s)	vocalist
Years active	1978–1989
Labels	Reekus Records Abstract Sounds Kabuki Records Creation Records Setanta Records
Associated acts	Nun Attax, Five Go Down to the Sea?, Beethoven

Finbarr Donnelly (25 April 1962 – 18 June 1989) was a singer and songwriter from Northern Ireland, who moved to Cork city at a young age. He is best known as the vocalist with the post-punk band Five Go Down to the Sea? (earlier known as include Nun Attax, later as Beethoven). Known for his striking stage presence and absurdist, surreal lyrics, he and the band were hugely influential on later generations of Irish musicians. Mark McAvoy, author of "Cork Rock: From Rory Gallagher to the Sultans of Ping", said in a 2017 interview that "Donnelly probably would have been the most influential musician and songwriter in terms of the Cork music scene and the bands that stemmed from it."

Their most widely regarded work, the EP Knot a Fish, was released in 1983. Donnelly's career peaked again in June 1989 when the EP Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem was named "Single of the Week" by the NME. Before he could build on this success, he drowned in a swimming accident on 18 June 1989 in Hyde Park's Serpentine Pond, aged 27.

Career

Five Go Down to the Sea?

Donnelly moved from Belfast to Cork city suburb The Glen, Cork as a child, when his family sought to relocate to avoid The Troubles. He met guitarist Ricky Dineen in 1978, and having bonded over a shared interest in UFOs, they formed a band, initially known as Nun Attax that year. The band grew a live following in Cork, centered around gigs in the Arcadia ballroom. Following the recruitment of various second guitarists and the cellist Úna Ní Chanainn, they recorded their most acclaimed EP Knot a Fish in 1983, and moved to London later that year. In 1984 they recorded The Glee Club on Abstract Sounds.

In 1985, they met Alan McGee and producer Joe Foster of Creation Records, a label which the band admired. McGee asked them to play a number of gigs at his Living Room club night on Conway Street, Camden.

The Singing in Braille EP was released on Creation in August 1985, but sold only 600 copies. Cavanagh believes that a long-term relationship with Creation was never likely, and that doing business with them would have been extremely difficult. The label's art director Peter Fowler remembers visiting them in Rotherhithe where he said "they were living with ten builders...They invited us around for tea, and they brought out a tray of jelly babies. Then they turned on the TV and sat down. [We] thought 'this is a joke – the hamburgers will be coming out any minute.' But they just sat there with a knife and fork and ate jelly babies. I've spoken since to people who've said "No they weren't doing it for show. That's what they did."

Beethoven

After the band broke up in 1985, Donnelly and Dineen stayed in London and played a number of gigs with a drum machine early in 1986, but did not attract industry interest. The two reformed as Beethoven in 1988, and the following year released the Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem EP on Setanta Records. The record was awarded "Single of the Week" by Steven Wells in the NME.

Death

Before the band could build on their successful EP, on 18 June 1989, Donnelly accidentally drowned while swimming in Hyde Park's Serpentine Pond, aged 27. Dineen had been out with him that day, and they had planned to meet up at a pub later in the evening. Dineen was there with his girlfriend, along with another of their female friends. He said "It was just an accident. It was one of those boiling hot days that you get in London in the summer. We were in Hyde Park and it was a natural thing for Donnelly to take off his clothes down to his jocks and go for a swim. He took off and the lifeguard people came out on a boat and tried to get him out. Mischievous person that Finbarr was, he tried to go under the boat, and he didn't come up. I think he got caught in the undergrowth underneath the water."

Dineen later said, "If you went out for the craic with your friends on a Sunday afternoon and one of them didn't come back, it's surreal like. Even though we were both 27, you're still young. It changes your whole life because we went from planning our future, thinking we were going to be in England for a while, to the next minute being on the flight back to Ireland." The planned second single was never released.

Personality

Donnelly had an over-sized personality, and he was described as a magnetic and charismatic if somewhat menacing performer. Keith O'Connell said that he "was fine during rehearsals, but he used to go off on his own then, especially in London...We wouldn't know what he was getting up to. He was a big bloke, so he was intimidating. People used to be afraid of him."

In 2020, The Quietus critic Eoin Murray wrote that "listening...now, almost 40 years later, it's with a mixture of nausea and awe that we hear so much of young Ireland's modern experience in Donnelly's words – in his frustration and frantic determination." In an oral history that served as a companion to the audio documentary Get That Monster Off the Stage, some close associates revealed that Donnelly was gay.

Discography

Nun Attax

• Kaught at the Kampus, various artists recorded at the Arcadia ballroom on 30 August 1980, Reekus Records, released 1981. Re-issued 2015
• Dave Fanning Radio Session, RTÉ2, 9 February 1981. Five tracks

Five Go Down to the Sea?

• Knot a Fish, Kabuki Records, 1983. EP
• 1st Fanning Session, RTÉ, 18 October November 1983. Five tracks
• The Glee Club, Abstract Sounds, 1984. EP
• 2nd Fanning Session, RTÉ2, 20 November 1984. Three tracks
• Singing in Braille, Creation Records, August 1985, EP
• Hiding from the Landlord, AllCity Records, 2020. Compilation album

Beethoven

• Him Goolie Goolie Man, Dem, Setanta Records, June 1989. EP