Ruby Murray Official Site

Hello Friends,

No, this is not going to be a 'teaser', this is a true story of a very funny situation that happened to Ruby and I during a tour of dates in southern Ireland and I'd like to share the story with you. The tour was extremely enjoyable and we loved every moment of it.

I will set the scene. One of the venues that we played was in a very small village(?) called Macroom. The venue was in the one and only main street and was owned by a man who appeared to own most things in Macroom. He was an extremely friendly man, as were most people that we met on the tour. We had arrived early and were invited into his apartment, which was above the ballroom where Ruby was going to perform that evening. He made us very welcome and privided us with refreshments.

It was quite obvious that the apartment had very recently been decorated and had beautiful floral wallpaper in maroon flock all around the room. One must assume that at the last moment he decided to have wallights fitted above the fireplace, left and right. Whoever did the electrical work took the 'feed' from a point that was sited at the centre of the shelf. Two channels were chiselled out for the wires, through the beautiful maroon flock walpaper, going in a V to where the wall lights were going to be sited and then plastered over them leaving a ghastly scar over the fireplace

We chatted for quite a while and as time passed, I realized that it was getting close to the time when Ruby needed to prepare for the show. Strangely, the clock on the shelf still registered the the same time that we had arrived. I enquired of the proprietor whether the clock was wrong? He said "AH! that is because when we switch off the wall lights... the clock stops"

Adios Amigos. Bernie

Hi Bernie,

Great story....Can you remember what year that happened?

Did Ruby do many tours of Southern Ireland and if so, can you remember the venues and if any other Irish singers appeared on the shows with Ruby? Would Marie Cunningham have provided the accompaniment and did the programme contain both Irish and pop songs?

Thanks.

Martin.

Hello Martin

In answer to your questions regarding Irish tours. Ruby did quite a lot of touring in Ireland before we were married. After our marriage we did 2 tours, at venues north and south, incidentally one venue was in Connemara (by the lake). On that occasion we stayed at Ashford Castle in Westport, it's a wonderful castle style building. That was 1961 because somewhere I have a colour transparency shot of Julie standing unaided, on her own, on the lawn outside the hotel with the lake adjoining, she must have been about 12 months old. Not far from the hotel there is a village called Cong, which is where the film 'The Quiet Man' was made with John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Victor Maclaglan(?). There is a beautiful little village pub, which I believe is supposed to be where the big fight scene started between the two big men. Over the top of the windows, on the facia of the pub, the words proudly displayed in large lettering is 'Welcome to Cong - of 'Quiet Man' fame'.

Marie didn't play piano for Ruby on those two tours, whereas she did on previous ones. Paul Burnett played on the first tour and Geoff Sanders played on the second. It was such a wonderful experience for everyone and we all have facinating stories to tell about the tours. By this time Marie and her husband Frank Murphy were running an agency. Ruby had promised Marie that she would do a tour for her, through her agency, and in fact she did the two tours for her.

We based ourselves in The Ormond Hotel, on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin, and drove to the venues from there, unless the journeys were too far away from Dublin, in which case we booked into hotels close to the venue that we were playing. We travelled many Irish miles, only people who have experienced Irish miles will understand what that means.

Ruby's repertoire was a mixture of songs but, naturally, her hit songs were the ones that the audiences wanted to hear.

I could go on forever about Ireland, it's a beautiful country and the people are so laid back, so far they nearly fall over.

I hope that answers your questions Martin.

Adios Amigo. Bernie.