This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Patrick Long. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 8 January 1906, Ireland
Died: 30 April 1979
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Margaret Tisdall
Tisdall, Margaret (Dell, Peggy) (1906–79), pianist and bandleader, was born 8 January 1906 in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, daughter of William Tisdall, musician, and Margaret Tisdall (née Gibbons). She was raised on the North Circular Road and educated locally. Known from childhood as Peggy, she developed a musical talent, especially as a pianist. At 13 she played in Woolworth’s department store on Dublin’s Grafton St. to promote the sale of sheet music, valuable exposure for many an aspiring musician and entertainer. Her father, possibly from experience, strongly disapproved but Peggy was convinced of her vocation to be in show business. Dublin in the 1920s and after had a disproportionately lively popular culture in which Peggy, like her contemporaries who included Noel Purcell, Jimmy O’Dea, and Jack Cruise, became part of a quintessentially Dublin vaudeville and variety generation that lasted for half a century. Before she was 20 she had formed her own band with four male musicians in improvised costume. Her exuberant performances made her a famous star. She played on stage at the newly opened Capitol cinema (formerly La Scala Theatre) in Prince’s St., when it was one of Dublin’s leading centre-city venues for popular entertainment (demolished 1974).
While she was noted as the first woman in Ireland with her own dance band, variety was her strong point. Tisdall was principally an accomplished pianist but undertook all forms of musical entertainment, from shows at the Capitol and at the Theatre Royal in Hawkins St. (demolished 1962) through pantomime at the Queen’s Theatre on Pearse St. (demolished late 1960s) and smaller venues such as Fuller’s restaurant on Grafton St. or private functions for friends’ families. In the early 1930s she joined Roy Fox’s band in London as his first female singer. For visual appeal on posters and handbills, Peggy Tisdall then adopted the stage name ‘Peggy Dell’ and kept it throughout her subsequent career. A deep voice added to the jazz-band quality of her performance. She toured the USA to great acclaim with the Jack Hylton Orchestra, returning to Dublin on the eve of the second world war. She turned down a BBC offer of a place in Tommy Handley’s new ITMA (‘It’s That Man Again’) radio show of 1939–49, a series later enshrined in the canon of British entertainment. Nevertheless, in the comparative safety of ‘Emergency’ Dublin, Peggy Dell joined Phil Murtagh’s band at the Metropole ballroom on O’Connell St., close to the Capitol. She continued to appear at the Theatre Royal supporting Purcell, Cruise, and the familiar troupe. Her fame was undiminished and ‘the Peggy Dell Orchestra’ achieved national prominence.
The 1950s preserved her appeal but time, fashion, and technology gradually affected the cohort of Dublin entertainers who had started out with the new state. After 1960, television provided alternative popular entertainment, and economic development swallowed up the live entertainment halls, replacing them with undistinguished office blocks. Peggy Dell was on stage for the last week of shows at the Theatre Royal in June 1962. What later became the genre of ‘rare ould times’ nostalgia was then part of a highly emotional endgame for fading stars. She suffered serious head injuries in a taxi accident in 1970, causing recurrent fainting spells, virtually ending her career and her remaining public profile. Some thought she had died, so private did she become. By a twist of fate, her career was suddenly resurrected on 22 December 1973 by her guest appearance on a special RTÉ ‘Late late show’ television birthday tribute to Noel Purcell. Surprised audiences were struck by Peggy Dell’s physical presence and virtuosity at the piano, leading to many inquiries and expressions of delight at her part in the show. RTÉ subsequently provided her with a television series, ‘Peg o’ my heart’, from which commercial albums were made. Other numbers were revived from her previous recordings. In 1974 her television series won a Jacob’s award and she was engaged to entertain Mediterranean cruises until 1975, highlights of a second career which happened by chance.
Peggy Dell lived at 15 Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin, until her death (30 April 1979), her name announced formally in the press as Margaret Tisdall. She was buried at Glasnevin cemetery. Four days after her death Jack Cruise also died and followed her to Glasnevin. An Irish Times editorial on 5 May eulogised them both, describing Peggy Dell’s songs at the piano as ‘the very stuff of individual artistry’ for which the community owed a great debt.