Willie Brady (15 July 1930 – 27 March 1969) was an Irish ballad and country singer and recording artist, popular in Ireland and abroad in the 1950s and 1960s. He was singing and recording ballads before the "Ballad Boom" arrived in Ireland and recorded over 20 albums. He died at the age of 38.

Life

Brady was born in Dún Laoghaire to a theatrical family. He made his broadcasting debut with

Radio Éireann Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

in 1950. He went on to become a regular on shows such as ''Take the Floor'' and ''Ranch-house Revels''. In the late 1950s, he signed for Irish-American recording company Avoca Records, with which he recorded his first two albums: ''Songs from Erin's Green Shore'' and ''The Homes of Donegal & Other Irish Ballads''. In the following years his popularity increased in Britain and the US and he continued to tour and record albums. In 1968, he was diagnosed with a kidney ailment which required a transplant. He died the following year, leaving a wife and four young children. Brady was the uncle of Anne Byrne, a folk-singer who came to prominence in the 1960s with The Abbey Tavern musicians in

Howth Howth ( ; ; non, Hǫfuð) is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes ...

, County Dublin.Rambling House
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References

1930 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Irish male singers Irish folk singers Irish country singers People from Dún Laoghaire {{Ireland-singer-stub