TV viewers have praised the Late Late Show’s touching tribute to the late, great Johnny Duhan, hailing it as a “beautiful” moment on during the show’s TradFest special.
The Late Late Show returned for the first time this year last night, kicking things off with a TradFest special to showcase the best of Ireland’s established and emerging musical talents.
Host Patrick Kielty was joined by the established and emerging musical talent including folk singer songwriter Aoife Scott, musician Wallis Bird, singer songwriter Mike Hanrahan and sean-nós singer Sean Keane, to name but a few.
The cast of musicians paid a moving tribute to Johnny Duhan, who lost his life off the Galway coast in November.
Legendary Irish folk musician Johnny enjoyed enormous success as a singer-songwriter and guitarist over many years. The Limerick man’s most famous tune, The Voyage, is one of the most revered songs in the national canon.
Viewers were moved by the tribute, and particularly touched by Mike Hanrahan, who took lead vocals on the musicians’ rendition of his best loved song.
One person wrote: “Mike Hanrahan singing ‘The Voyage’ on Late Late Show is just [loveheart emojis]. Beautiful tribute to the late great Johnny Duhan”.
“A beautiful tribute by the gent that is Mike Hanrahan,” a second wrote.
Another person shared: “What a great version of The Voyage by Mike Hanrahan and others.” While a fourth gushed: ” Great tribute to Johnny”.
Duhan had been in the music business from the age of just 15, when he fronted his first band, Limerick’s Granny’s Intentions.
Christy Moore once termed Johnny “one of our greatest songwriters,” while the late Ronnie Drew described him as “one of my favourite songwriters”.
He recorded and released several albums across a celebrated and prolific career. Duhan regularly performed in Cork, including at festivals in Mallow and at the Cork Folk Festival.