The Dubliners of 2018, Seán Cannon is the only former member still in this group, following Eamonn Campbell's death in October 2017. The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin. The change of name came about because of Ronnie Drew's unhappiness with it, together with the fact that Luke Kelly was reading "Dubliners" by James Joyce at the time. Founding members were Drew, Kelly, Ciarán Bourke and Barney McKenna. Drew, McKenna and Thomas Whelan had originally teamed up for a fundraising concert and then
Ivy Day in the Committee Room the latter story also owes something to his brother Stanislaus' account of his father at work during a Dublin by-election three years earlier. After being rejected by Symon’s publishers, Joyce sent Dubliners (then comprising only twelve stories) to publisher Grant Richards. It took nearly eight years for Dubliners to get published. Going back and forth with Richards, who initially agreed to publish his work, Joyce revised and omitted many things in Dubliners to reach an agreement. However, Richards objected to too many things and eventually simply refused to publish the book. Ireland has a prominent role in Joyce's writing. Having