Luke Kelly (Irish: Lúc Ó Ceallaigh; 17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer and folk musician from Dublin, Ireland, notable as a founding member of the band The Dubliners. He is often considered Ireland's greatest folk singer. 　　Early life[edit] 　　Luke Kelly was born into a working-class family in Lattimore Cottages, 1 Sheriff Street, a quarter of a mile from Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street. His grandmother, who was a MacDonald from Scotland, lived with the family until her death in 1953. His father worked all his life in Jacob's biscuit factory and enjoyed playing football. Both Luke and his brother Paddy played club Gaelic football and soccer as children.[2] 　　Luke left school at thirteen and after four years of odd-jobbing, he went to England in 1958. Working at steel fixing with his brother Paddy on a building site in Wolverhampton, he was sacked after asking for more money[citation needed]. He worked odd jobs from oil barrel cleaning to vacuum salesman. 　　Musical beginnings[edit] 　　The first folk club he came across was in the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne in early 1960.[3] Having already acquired the use of a banjo, he started memorising songs. In Leeds he brought his banjo to sessions in McReady's pub. The folk revival was under way in England: at the centre of it was Ewan MacColl who scripted a radio programme called Ballads and Blues. The skiffle craze had also injected a certain energy into folk singing. 　　Luke started busking. On a trip home he went to a fleadh cheoil in Milltown Malbay on the advice of Johnny Moynihan. He listened to recordings of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. As he sought out the musician in himself, he also developed his political convictions which, as Ronnie Drew pointed out after his death, he stuck to throughout his life. As Ronnie also pointed out, he learned to sing with perfect diction. 　　Luke befriended Sean Mulready in Birmingham and lived in his home for a period. Mulready was a teacher who was fired from his job in Dublin because of his communist beliefs. He had strong music links; a sister, Kathleen Moynihan was a founder member of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and he was related by marriage to Festy Conlon, the Co. Galway whistle player. His wife's brother, Ned Stapleton, taught Luke "The Rocky Road to Dublin". 　　Luke bought his first banjo, which had five strings and a long neck, and played it in the style of Pete Seeger and Tommy Makem. At the same time, Kelly began a habit of reading and also began playing golf on one of Birmingham's municipal courses. He got involved in the Jug O'Punch folk club run by Ian Campbell. He befriended Dominic Behan and they performed in folk clubs and Irish pubs from London to Glasgow. In London pubs like The Favourite he would hear street singer Margaret Barry and musicians in exile like Roger Sherlock, Seamus Ennis, Bobby Casey and Mairtín Byrnes. 　　Luke Kelly was by now active in the Connolly Association, a left-wing grouping strongest among the exiles in England. His political development was significant. It gave edge and conviction to his performance and lent weight to The Dubliners' repertoire at a time when the youth in Ireland were breaking away from Civil War politics. He was also to start frequenting Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's Singer Club in London.