![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5123361_4_articleinlinemobile_EOHConcertUkraine08.jpg\" "\\"Jimmy")
Jimmy with fellow Cork musician John Spillane in 2022, after a fund-raising concert for Ukraine. Picture; Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\nThose are the words of Darby Crowley, brother of Cork musician Jimmy, ahead of the concert celebrating his career in the city next week.<\/p>\n
More than 40 performers will take part in A Musical Tribute To Jimmy Crowley at Cork City Hall on Wednesday, June 24 – an astonishing response after the call went out to raise funds for the musician.<\/p>\n
Singer and songwriter Jimmy was in hospital for five months after suffering a stroke. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer last September.<\/p>\n
His partner, Eve Telford, issued a GoFundMe appeal to raise funds so he could continue his rehabilitation at their Cobh home, and it quickly passed the \u20ac100,000 mark.<\/p>\n
As well as donations, a number of concerts in Ireland and around the world were arranged to raise money for the cause, including a trad and folk session in the Randy Leprechaun bar in La Zenia, Spain – a former haunt of Jimmy\u2019s – which raised \u20ac1,130.<\/p>\n
A group of Cork musicians, including William Hammond, also set out to put on a big tribute event for Jimmy in the city, and among those 40-plus performers next week will be Jimmy\u2019s brother Darby and Leeside musician John Spillane.<\/p>\n
Darby, of Kilnamartyra, who is five years younger than Jimmy, and is himself a songwriter, spoke to me the day after Jimmy left hospital and went home to Cobh to continue his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great for Jimmy to go home, he was delighted – there\u2019s no place like home,\u201d said Darby.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe family have been overwhelmed by the response to the appeal, it is a fantastic tribute to him and his music.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are very proud of Jimmy and his achievements, he is a lovely man.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, John Spillane spoke of the huge debt he owes to Jimmy for his own successful career in music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was unbelievably lucky that I had a wonderful apprenticeship with Jimmy Crowley,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jimmy with fellow Cork musician John Spillane in 2022, after a fund-raising concert for Ukraine. Picture; Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 21, he took me on as a bass player with his band, which he called The Quartet at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an education I could not have got in any university, with Jimmy and the likes of Johnny Murphy and Christy Twomey.<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy was very kind to me, and it was an honour to perform with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had two summers playing with him and his band, it was an amazing education.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are a good few contenders for the Bard of Cork, and Crowley and Spillane are surely right up there in the conversation, alongside legends like Jimmy MacCarthy and Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Spillane says Crowley\u2019s first band, Stoker\u2019s Lodge, were \u201cthe Cork equivalent of Planxty\u201d and a key part of the folk revival of the 1970s.<\/p>\n
That band\u2019s first two albums, The Boys Of Fairhill and Camp House Ballads, will form a large part of the songs performed at the tribute concert to Crowley next week.<\/p>\n
Expect renditions of the likes of Johnny Jump Up, Salonika, The Armoured Car, The Groves Of Blackpool, and Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down Con Shine.\n <\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t get much more Cork than that!<\/p>\n
Spillane added: \u201cIt promises to be a a great night, with so many performers and so many great songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aoife Granville (Dingle flute player and Arts Council member)
\n Barry Tierney (International singer from Kinsale)
\n Brian Morrissey and Eoin Coughlan – The Oars (Cork folk musicians),
\n Colm Murphy (bodhran player with De Dannan from Cork),
\n Con \u00d3 Drisceoil (writer of The Pool Song for Jimmy Crowley,
\n Conal Creedon (Cork poet and writer who performed with Jimmy)
\n Darragh Jamie McGann (Cobh singer who recorded Jimmy\u2019s song My Love Is A Tall Ship)
\n Darby Crowley (Jimmy\u2019s brother and singer)
\n Des Geraghty (former SIPTU President, singer and organiser of concerts in Dublin for Jimmy)
\n Eoin Jordan and Anthony Ruby (Cork folk duo)
\n Eoin \u00d3 Riabhaigh – uilleann pipes – and Johnny Murphy – guitar (members of Jimmy Crowley\u2019s band, Stoker\u2019s Lodge. They recorded the albums The Camp House Ballads and The Boys Of Fair Hill with Jimmy and the late Chris Twomey and Mick Murphy
\n Fiona Kennedy (Cork songwriter who has performed with Jimmy on many occasions)
\n Garry Cronin, John Mitchell, Linda Quinlan, Catherine Frost, and William Hammond (group of Cork musicians who performed with Jimmy in An Spailp\u00edn F\u00e1nach pub),
\n Gerry Murphy (Cork poet)
\n John Spillane (one of Ireland\u2019s finest songwriters, he received an education from Jimmy and performed with him many times over the last 30 years)
\n M\u00e1ire N\u00ed Ch\u00e9ileachair (Cork se\u00e1n n\u00f3s singer)
\n Marla Fibish and Macdarra \u00d3 Faol\u00e1in (Marla, from San Francisco, is a mandolin player who recorded an album with Jimmy when he was living in the U.S, Macdarra is a bouzouki player from An Rinn),
\n Majella Cullagh (Cork opera singer and friend of Jimmy)
\n Mick Daly, Mick O\u2019Brien, Brendan Butler and Hal O\u2019Neill – Lee Valley String Band (Cork\u2019s oldest band, formed in 1968 by the Toner Brothers Neill and Colm and Chris Twomey, Chris played and recorded with Jimmy in the band Stoker\u2019s Lodge),
\n Michael Murtagh, Jason Turk, Brian Leach, Se\u00e1n Murphy, and Danny Dineen (Cork band Amad\u00e1ns & Bodhr\u00e1ns),
\n Tim O\u2019Riordan (legendary Cork ballad singer),
\n The Cheese Club (a group of Cork singers who meet in the Corner House).<\/p>\n