Finbarr Donnelly

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 Nun Attax, later as Beethoven Fucking 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...the Cork music scene and the bands that stemmed from it." 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.

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. He remembered; "They were bananas. They would bite Joe's head, Donnelly would lick my ears. But they were good to have in the club if there was ever any threat of violence." According to writer David Cavanagh, during band's gigs at the Living Room, "Donnelly...snatched pints from the hands of people in the crowd, and shouted surreal, Flann O'Brien-esque lyrics while his colleagues clonked out ramshackle, all-elbows rhythms."

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 Fucking 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. 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." Cathal Coughlan, songwriter and vocalist for Microdisney and the Fatima Mansions, said that he would "not have ended up doing music if I hadn't met Donnelly, and... ended up as a malcontented alcoholic civil servant working in a food factory somewhere in County Offaly."

Cultural legacy The English songwriter Pete Astor's 1992 song "Donnelly" was written in tribute to the late singer. The track appears on their album Paradise, released on Danceteria records. Astor said in 2016; "the reason I wrote the song is that I have an incredibly strong memory of Donnelly and the band. The song had to do with the idea that Donnelly was the unsung hero. He was like a complete hero, a total legend, just like Shaun Ryder was and is, and years later just like Richie Edwards was and is. But Finbarr was unsung." To mark the 20th anniversary of Donnelly's death, a tribute night was held at the Pavilion in Cork on 18 June 2009. Featuring covers of their songs, the line up included Mick Lynch and John Spillane.

The band Your Heterosexual Violence released the song "Curtains Closed (Eulogy for Finbarr Donnelly)" in June 2019. According to vocalist Brian O'Brien: "Most of the band knew Finbarr from when he and his band Five Go Down To The Sea? were living in [London]. I became particularly good friends with [him] and since his untimely passing...rarely does a day go by without my thinking about him. He was a real one-off, with a unique way of engaging with people, a unique way of looking at the world and his bands sounded like no other."

The Five Go Down to the Sea? compilation album Hiding from the Landlord was released in April 2020, accompanied by a twenty-page fanzine with contributions from Astor, Reekus Records founder Elvira Butler, Cathal Coughlan of The Fatima Mansions, Gavin Friday of the Virgin Prunes, and writers John Robb, Kevin Barry, Declan Lynch and Cónal Creedon. Hiding from the Landlord, AllCity Records, 2020. Compilation album

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

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