Frank Hennessy (born 2 February 1947) is a Welsh

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

singer and radio presenter. Born into

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

's Irish community, Hennessy was used to performance in front of his family by the time his father gave him a guitar aged 13. Although an apprentice at the time at an electrical contractor, after winning

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff () is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Administrative divisions of Wales, principal areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

's 1966 "Spotlight on Youth" talent competition with friend Dave Burns, the pair were persuaded to go professional under the name '' The Hennessys.'' They relocated to Ireland, and developed their sound with Paul Powell. As all three were Welsh, they developed a more Welsh sound and

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

base, creating local favourites "''Farewell to the Rhondda''" (about the decline of the mining industry in Wales and its social consequences), "''Tiger Bay''" (about emigration from

Tiger Bay Tiger Bay () was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is referred to as Car ...

, the Dockland district of Cardiff) and the capital's anthem "''Cardiff Born.''" Hennessy's own musical compositions have been recorded by a wide range of artists such as

The Fureys The Fureys are an Irish folk band originally formed in 1974. The group consisted initially of four brothers who grew up in Ballyfermot, Dublin. Brothers Eddie, Finbar, Paul and George Furey are of Irish Traveller heritage. Two of the band's ...

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Daniel O'Donnell Daniel Francis Noel O'Donnell, MBE (born 12 December 1961) is an Irish singer, television presenter and philanthropist. After rising to public attention in 1983, he has since become a household name in Ireland and Britain; he has also had co ...

, Diarmuid O'Leary and the Bards and

Max Boyce Maxwell Boyce, (born 27 September 1943) is a Welsh comedian, singer and entertainer from Glynneath, Wales. He rose to fame in the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in a South Wal ...

. One of his songs brought Hennessy a number one slot in the Irish Charts when Daniel O'Donnell recorded ''The Old Dungarvan Oak'', a version of Hennessy's ''The Old Carmarthen Oak''. Hennessy took a break from the music industry in the early 1970s to get married and have a family. In 1978 he was asked to present a programme for the new Cardiff independent radio station

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

, a role he greatly enjoyed. After CBC's collapse and takeover, in 1984,

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

invited Hennessy to act as a stand-in presenter. He also created and presented television programmes including ''Frank Hennessy's Ireland'' (2000); ''Way Out West'' (1998) (tracing the roots of

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

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n and

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

music); and ''Way Down Under'', which took a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

look at the music and culture of Australia. Hennessy currently presents BBC Radio Wales' folk roots and acoustic music show ''Celtic Heartbeat,''BBC – Wales – Radio Wales – Celtic Heartbeat
/ref> and for many years co-hosted the Sunday evening programme ''I'll Show You Mine'' with

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player

Ray Gravell Raymond William Robert Gravell (12 September 1951 – 31 October 2007) was a Welsh rugby union Centre (rugby union), centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC. At international level, Gravell earned 23 cap (sport), caps for Wales national r ...

until his death in 2007. Gravell was replaced by singer

Amy Wadge Amy Victoria Wadge (born 22 December 1975) is an English singer and songwriter. She has co-written tracks with Ed Sheeran, including " Thinking Out Loud" for which she won the 2016 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Early life Wadge was born an ...

Albums

*Frank Hennessy – Thoughts & Memories (1987)

References

External links

Biography at BBC Radio Wales

Frank Hennessy, a Song for Cardiff at BBC Wales
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hennessy, Frank 1947 births Living people Musicians from Cardiff Welsh people of Irish descent Welsh folk musicians Welsh radio presenters Welsh television presenters BBC Radio Wales presenters 20th-century British folk musicians 21st-century British folk musicians 21st-century Welsh musicians 20th-century Welsh musicians