Joe Dolan - Topic

Joseph "Galway Joe" Dolan was an Irish musician, songwriter and artist. Known as "Galway Joe" to distinguish him from Joe Dolan of Mullingar, he was born in Galway, County Galway, Ireland.
Dolan was an arts student in Dublin before becoming involved in the Irish showbands of the 1960s, playing guitar with The Capitol Showband and The Swingtime Aces.
He is best known as one of the three founding members, together with Andy Irvine and Johnny Moynihan, of the highly influential folk group Sweeney's Men, which was formed in Galway in May 1966; Dolan also chose the group's name. Sweeney's Men invigorated the Irish folk scene, and had an unexpected Irish top 10 hit with "Old Maid in the Garret" in 1967.
The week "Old Maid in the Garret" was in the Top Ten, Dolan left the band to go to Israel with the intention of taking part in the Six-Day War. Later on, Des Kelly—Sweeney's Men's manager—joked that Dolan had arrived on the seventh day, "but it took him a year to get down there". He wrote the song "The Trip to Jerusalem" about his journey there, which was later recorded by Christy Moore in 1978 on the album The Iron Behind the Velvet.