Liffey Green Danube Blue : The Musical Life and Loves of Laszlo Gede

Liffey Green, Danube Blue is the remarkable account of László Gede, a Hungarian musician who made Ireland his home in 1969. His story begins in Hungary during the First World War, enduring poverty and hardship, and charts his rise to clarinettist in the State Opera House Orchestra. Between the wars Budapest was an exhilarating place for László, thrilling audiences with his Goldwin Gede swing band in its celebrated café society. The Second World War saw him playing in military bands and miraculously avoided being sent to the Front in 1944, while also involved in resistance work. The period was also marked by his two short marriages. Following his imprisonment by the postwar communist authorities, he escaped across the border to Austria along with his third wife during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

From Austria he settled in Johannesburg and joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. The apartheid violence during the 1960s however led to another move – this time to Ireland. When his musical career was cut short in his late fifties, he sought other ways to earn a living in Dublin – as craftsman, landlord, businessman, taxi driver and engineer. A born survivor, László could turn every setback to his advantage, while doing his best to help others. Grief at the death of his wife Irén from cancer was soon replaced by joy when he married her nurse Eibhlín Mac Máighistir in 1988. Ever-resourceful with a huge capacity for work, his brain whirred endlessly until the end. This book is her tribute to a man who combined talent with ingenuity and altruism.