Diplomats Showband (Cork
- 1963-1968)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
We received an email from Ethna Canniffe in 2023 telling us about
the Diplomats Showband based in Cork of which her father was a
member. We started researching the band which was little difficult
as there appeared to be another band of the same name with
management in Dublin, while the Cork based band's manager was
located in Co. Cork. This is not an unusual circumstance, in fact it
happened all the time in the early days of the era as the number of
bands that were truly "national" (played all over the country) were
fairly rare. Based on the dance listing for the dance between 1963
ande 1968 they were a regional band, never playing outside of
counties Cork and Kerry.
Ethna was kind enough to send us
info about the band's lineup, although we can't confirm whether this
was the original lineup of the band. Our photo collection of the
band shows it was a six piece out fit and also a seven piece outfit
with a male and then female lead singer. The "original" lineup was
John Downey (trumpet), Paddy Canniffe (sax), Johnny Foley (guitar),
Sean Barrett (guitar), Johnny Fahy (vocals), Dennis Sheehan (drums)
and Con (or Don) Foley (bass).
At some point the lineup changed
and Kay Barry replaced Johnny Fahy as the lead singer, and two more
new members were Brain Ring (guitar) and Johnny Sweeney (bass).
We're not sure who they replaced.
The last gig we found for the band
was October 24th, 1968.
More to come....
click on thumbnails for full image
