

Irish classical guitarist Michael Howard, who was with McKenna when he died, said he was talking with his longtime friend at his kitchen table, when "all of a sudden Barney's head dropped down to his chest. It looked as if he'd nodded off." Howard said paramedics over the phone talked him through emergency revival procedures, but McKenna "was pretty much gone."

"The comfort that I take from it is, he passed away very peacefully sitting at his own breakfast table having a quiet cup of tea and a chat," Howard said.

"What a lovely way to go," said McKenna's Dubliners bandmate for a quarter-century, guitarist and singer Eamonn Campbell.

McKenna was considered the most influential banjo player in Irish folk music. He spent a half-century performing, recording and touring with the band ever since its 1962 creation in the Dublin pub O'Donoghue's. The other three founders _ Ronnie Drew, Ciaran Bourke and Luke Kelly _ died in 2008, 1988 and 1984, respectively.

McKenna completed a United Kingdom tour with The Dubliners last month and performed Wednesday night at a Dublin funeral. Howard, who also performed there and drove McKenna home afterward, said his friend performed "absolutely beautifully. When he finished there was a spontaneous, thunderous round of applause in the church."


The gravel-voiced Drew recruited him to Friday night "sessions" _ impromptu barside concerts _ at O'Donoghue's, a diminutive pub near the Irish parliament so famously packed that its barmen had to stand on stepstools to take orders. It soon gained a reputation as the country's top venue for live folk music, with The Dubliners performing alongside such other rising folk stars as The Chieftains and the Fureys.


"His influence on and generosity to other instrumentalists was immense," said Irish President Michael D. Higgins, who saw McKenna perform last month in a Dublin cathedral at one of The Dubliners' many 50th anniversary performances.


"He was like a brother to me," recalled fiddler John Sheahan, who joined The Dubliners in 1964 and remains in the band today. His favorite Barneyism: calling an optical illusion an "obstacle confusion."

"He was very droll man and great company. You'd never know what he'd come out with next," Campbell said. "My favorite song that he sang was `I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day.' And that was true about Barney."





Dubliners history and members, http://itsthedubliners.com/welcome.htm

Official Dubliners site, http://thedubliners50years.com/

McKenna's 2008 banjo medley performance, http://bit.ly/Hh6gwv

McKenna sings `I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day,' http://bit.ly/HYINwr