The Free Peace Festival in The Phoenix Park in 1978 can either be seen as a bitter disappointment or as a fantastic achievement depending on your outlook.
It can be seen as a disappointment for it was supposed to take place over a full weekend, feature over ninety acts over three stages and attract over 50,000 revelers, but in the end, the festival opened with only one stage, a handful of bands and only 3,000 or so fans.
The achievement lies that in the fact that a free festival took place in The Phoenix Park which attracted 3,000 people, three times more than the one the year before.
Bill ‘Ubi’ Dywer (1933 – 2001), the ecentric Irish-born self-described ‘non-violent anarchist’ and main organiser, made his name running the Windsor Free Festival in London from 1972 – 1974 which saw over 100,000 attend and was widely seen as being the forerunner for the Free Festival Movement and directly the Stonehenge Free Festival and the later Glastonbury Festival.
The 1978 festival in The Phoenix Park was supposed to feature over ninety acts including U2, De Dannan, Clannad, Horslips, Paul Brady, The Bach St Kids, VHF, Biro’s, Revolver, Rocky De Valera & The Gravediggers and Brown Thomas. I’m not sure which of those actually played in the end. As well as music, there was theatre, mime and an adventure playground for children.
Gareth Byrne remembers that day:
Saturday 5th August the first morning was bright when organisers began to arrive at The Hollow. The first band played to a trickle of spectators. By midday I spotted half a dozen individuals in wheel chairs at one corner, supervised helpfully by Fergus Rowan and a friend, who had arranged special transport. Gradually the attendance swelled to a few hundred individuals and parents with children. More bands arrived and got their gear ready. By lunchtime the sky had clouded over and there was a heavy downpour. Ubi donned a yellow showerproof cape and put a cheerful face on things by dancing and twirling to the music around the bandstand. I noticed a sharp row he had with members of one band who got nervous about the possibility of electric shock and wanted to switch off the AC/DC system. He effed and blinded loudly at them and insisted that the show go on. The shower died down, the sun reappeared, and Ubi disappeared. More people turned up to listen and the music went on smoothly until about 7 p.m.
Around 4 p.m. Ubi reappeared at the bandstand and looked the worse for drink. His reeking breath and raving demeanour suggested several double shots of Irish whiskey in addition to the customary pints of Guinness. A uniformed member of the Gardai (police) and a plainclothes detective tried to reason with him. He was escorted from The Hollow, somehow got to the ferry harbour at Dun Laoghaire and took the boat and overnight train to London. British newspapers reported a week later that Thames Valley police arrested him as he arrived at Windsor Park intending to launch a banned free music festival there. He was sentenced to jail and didn’t return to Dublin until the autumn of 1979.
In many ways, the Free Peace Festival was overshadowed by the first Carnsore Anti-Nuclear Rally which took place just two weeks after and attracted over 10,000 people.
Ubi later ran as an independent in Dun Laoghaire for the Dail in 1981 and 1982, receiving 927 and 418 votes respectively, and later was involved in the campaigning for legalisation of Cannabisand H-Blocks prisoner rights. He was involved in a cycling accident in the late 1990s in the Dublin mountains, never fully recovered from his injuries at died at the age of 68 in 2001.
I remember Ubi Dwyer as a character around Dun Laoghaire in the early 80’s, always to be seen on his white bicycle. By this stage, he’d had a shave and a haircut and generally wore a suit. He lived in a caravan in his mum’s back garden in Sallynoggin, which also doubled as the hq for his political party, the Justice Party. He made a series of posters when he went for one of the elections, all of which featured a blurb and a drawing of the bicycle. I remember one of the blurbs read:
‘Everybody has 1 2 3 4 5 toes on the party line.
Are you flatfooted or Fred Astaire?
Vote for the Justice Party and see what happens.
Or nothing might happen.’
I think he may have self-published a book of his travel journals called ‘Senator Sunflower’ (the name of his bike). Sadly, I’ve never seen a copy.
I have a copy of this book. Ubi was my fathers first cousin. I’d be happy to send you copies of the pages.
ubi dwyer was a legend. home made posters and always on his bike.
I remember queueing for the gates of Dalymount to open for the Bob Marley gig in 1980, he was dressed as a priest and collecting signatures for a legalise cannabis petition
A tad off topic- I see there’s a ‘Hell Angels’ jacket in the collage above what was the strength of the Hells Angles in Ireland? Were they doing security on the day like at the Rolling Stones free concerts in London?
Can’t answer the first question but yes, the Hells Angels did do security at the Free Peace Festivals in the Phoenix Park in 1977 and 1978.
Yes, the festival was “stewarded” by members of the Hells Angels MC Viking. In the montage, first pic, you can see Irelands first ever Hells Angel recruit, or “Prospect”. His name was Shane, from Trim, and was on the Late Late with his bike “Apache”, A Triumph 650. next to him is Mac, the Preident, next picture shows Mouse, the Treasurer. They lived in Clondalkin at the time.
[…] Dublin’s oldest hotel was, the Dublin strike that lasted fourteen years, Phoenix Park’s Free Peace Festivals in the late 1970s, early days of Stand Up comedy in Dublin, depressing snaps of Sandyford […]
I was 16, and was due to play with my 3 mates at the gig. A lot of effort went into it, much leafleting etc. A few name bands were due to play, and we were pretty excited about it all. The stage was supposed to be near the Obelisk, in expectation of a good crowd.
We made our way over in the morning, with minor floods along the way due to absolutely pissing rain. We were somewhat deflated when we found a few sheep at the Obelisk – even they looked pissed off with the rain. Then, we heard a few drum beats, and 1-2s in the distance. We found a few bands and some hardy souls at the bandstand in the hollow. It pissed stair-rods at times, and pretty much everyone sodded off home.
We returned later in the day, playing to fuck all people at about 7pm. I recall very numb lips from all the electric shocks from the microphones. It’s amazing what you’ll put up with for a bit of attention.
The PA hire company guys got a bit eager to get their gear out of the rainy atmosphere. Ubi wasn’t about to let that happen, and he started throwing shapes with an axe-handle. Cue Garda intervention, and Ubi being lifted by his elbows and carried to a squad car. Exit Ubi Dwyer from the ‘festival’.
The next day had better weather, a poxy borrowed PA, a decent crowd, and a few enthusiastic bands. We played at about 4pm, directly in advance of The Outcasts, who seemed a little bit like the real deal shapes-wise, compared to all the middle-class kids like us from Dublin. There was actually a decent crowd by that time, definitely a couple of thousand. The atmosphere was good, The Outcasts were drunk, basic, thuggish and pretty damn good too.
That was one weird weekend. I can’t imagine anything like it happening now.
Ubi was a decent fellow. He meant it all. RIP.
Thanks for your memories. Exactly what this blog is all about. Best wishes.
Hi Ronan, which band did you play with at the festival.
Jeff
I remember Ubi well (‘Vote for legalising cannabis and the view from the West Pier’!). He had his cycling accident over Whit 1987, I remember. As it happens I was a patient in the now NMRH where Ubi was working as a wonderfully engaging porter. He left in great form for the weekend with his bike and camera, and returned not long afterwards as a patient after his bicycle accident in Wicklow where he suffered a brain injury. It was very sad. He was one of a kind.