Paddy Tunney (28 January 1921 – 7 December 2002) was an
Irish traditional singer, poet, writer,
raconteur
A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business ...
,
lilter and songwriter. He was affectionately known as the ''Man of Songs''.
From Glasgow to Garvery
Tunney was born in Glasgow to Irish parents, Patrick Tunney from
Mollybreen,
County Fermanagh
County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...
, and
Brigid Tunney
Brigid Tunney (née Gallagher; 1886 – 1975) was an Irish traditional singer, probably best known for being the mother of Paddy Tunney, a key personality in the Irish music scene and well known in British Folk circles from the 1950s up un ...
(née Gallagher) from Rusheen near
Pettigo
Pettigo, also spelt Pettigoe ( ; ), is a small village and townland on the border of County Donegal, Republic of Ireland and County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is bisected by the Termon River which is part of the border between the Republi ...
,
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...
. His mother came from a strong musical background going back several generations in her parents' families and had a huge stock of traditional songs. Within a few weeks of his birth the family returned to Ireland to his maternal grandfather's cottage in Rusheen. His maternal grandfather, Michael Gallagher, was his first song teacher and Paddy recalled learning his first song, "The Lark in the Morning", from him at the age of four. The following year the family moved a few miles across the border and settled in the townland of Garvery, in the parish of Mulleek, County Fermanagh. Throughout his childhood and teenage years he learned traditional songs from his mother, who for the rest of his life remained the biggest influence on his style and repertoire
Brigid Tunney's brother, Michael Gallagher, was another important influence on him, particularly when it came to "humorous songs".
Education and early life
He attended Derryhollow NS and later Ballyshannon Technical School. His first job was as a forester and subsequently he worked as a County Council road worker. During the Second World War he became involved with the IRA and in the summer of 1943 was sentenced to seven years penal servitude for smuggling explosives. The regime in the
Crumlin Road Gaol
HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...
at the time was particularly brutal and the four years that he spent there were made a big impression on him. Fellow IRA prisoners at the time included
Hugh McAteer
Hugh McAteer ( ga, Aodh Mac an tSaoir; 13 August 1916 – 24 June 1970) was a volunteer in, and leader of, the Irish Republican Army during their Northern Campaign, and later in 1950 and 1964 unsuccessfully contested for a seat in the British ...
,
Jimmy Steele,
Joe Cahill
, birth_date =
, death_date =
, birth_place = Belfast, Ireland
, death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland
, image = Joe Cahill.png
, caption = Cahill, early 1990s.
, allegiance = Provisional Irish Republican ...
,
Gerry Adams, Sr.
Gerard Adams Sr. (1926 – 17 November 2003) was a Belfast Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who took part in its Northern Campaign in the 1940s. He has also been described as "important in the emergence of the Provisional IRA in 1970" ...
, Frank Morris and Arthur Kearney. On his release he went to Dublin and studied in University College Dublin to become a health inspector. He worked for a time with Dublin Corporation and Kerry County Council before settling in Donegal in 1950. He married Julia Bradley from Manorcunningham in 1955. They had six children together: Paddy, Cathal, Brigid, Michael, Maura and John, all of whom are singers in the family tradition.
Life and influence in music
He attended his first
Fleadh Cheoil na h-Éireann in Monaghan in 1952 and from then on rarely missed this annual musical gathering run by
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (; meaning "Society of the musicians of Ireland") is the primary Irish organisation dedicated to the promotion of the music, song, dance and the language of Ireland. The organisation was founded in 1951 and has pr ...
. In the early 1960s he began adjudicating at the Fleadh and attended many seminars and workshops associated with traditional music. He served for nearly 20 years at the annual Scoil Éigse, where he passed on his songs and his singing techniques to young singers.
For over a decade, beginning in the 1960s, he was a regular on the English Folk club circuit, where he sang alongside
Joe Heaney
Joe Heaney (AKA Joe Éinniú; Irish: Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) (1 October 1919 – 1 May 1984) was an Irish traditional ( sean nós) singer from County Galway, Ireland. He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland and New York ...
and
Louis Killen
Louisa "Lou" Jo Killen (born Louis Killen; 10 January 1934 – 9 August 2013) was an English folk singer from Gateshead, Tyneside, who also played the English concertina.
Killen formed one of Britain's first folk clubs in 1958 in Newcastle upon ...
, and became friends with the likes of
Bert Lloyd
Albert Lancaster Lloyd (29 February 1908 – 29 September 1982),Eder, Bruce. (29 September 1982A. L. Lloyd - Music Biography, Credits and Discography AllMusic. Retrieved on 2013-02-24. usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English fo ...
,
Ewan MacColl
James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...
,
Peggy Seeger
Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American Folk music, folk singer. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years, and was married to the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989.
First American period
Seeg ...
,
Bill Leader Bill Leader (born 26 December 1929) is an English recording engineer and record producer. He is particularly associated with the British folk music revival of the 1960s and 1970s, producing records by Paddy Tunney, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Re ...
and
Hamish Henderson
Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier.
He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and disc ...
. In the mid-1970s he transferred to
Salthill, County Galway
Salthill () is a seaside area in the City of Galway in the west of Ireland. Lying within the townland of Lenaboy (''an Léana Buí''), it attracts many tourists all year round. There is a 2 km long promenade, locally known as ''the Pro ...
for seven years. During that time in the west of Ireland he had the space to give himself over to writing. Not only did he write poetry and compose many songs, he also wrote his acclaimed ''The Stone Fiddle''. He returned to live in Donegal in 1982.
He began broadcasting as far back as 1952, first for Radio Éireann and later for BBC, working with
Seán Mac Réamoinn
__NOTOC__
Seán Mac Réamoinn (27 November 1921 – 17 January 2007) was an Irish people, Irish journalist and broadcaster. He took a deep interest in Irish culture and language and religious affairs.
Mac Réamoinn was born in Birmingham, the thi ...
, Seán O'Boyle and
Peter Kennedy. Throughout the 1960s he wrote and presented many programmes on RTÉ radio. In the 1980s he collaborated with
Ciarán Mac Mathúna
Ciarán Mac Mathúna (26 November 1925 – 11 December 2009) was an Irish broadcaster and music collector. He was a recognised authority on Irish traditional music and lectured extensively on the subject. He travelled around Ireland, England, Sc ...
of RTÉ on a four-part radio documentary on Irish Traditional Singing. He worked with the BBC producer Tony McCauley scripting and presenting two award-winning television documentaries on the traditions of the area around his home in west Fermanagh. In the new century was the subject of a TG4 series ''Sé Mo Laoch''. His family songs appeared in the repertoires of countless traditional singers, including such commercial artists as
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...
,
Planxty
Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars ...
,
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...
,
Paul Brady
Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age.
Initially popular for playing ...
,
Dolores Keane
Dolores Keane (born 26 September 1953) is an Irish folk singer and occasional actress. She was a founding member of the group De Dannan and has since embarked on a solo career.
Background
Keane was born in a small village called Sylane (near ...
,
Andy Irvine,
Dick Gaughan
Richard Peter Gaughan (born 17 May 1948) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.
Early years
Gaughan was born in Glasgow's Roy ...
,
Altan,
The Voice Squad
The Voice Squad was a traditional Irish singing group from Ireland. The members included Gerry Cullen, Phil Callery and Fran McPhail. They recorded four albums and toured Ireland, the UK and the US.
The Voice Squad had a repertoire of Irish ...
,
Dervish
Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity
A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, ...
,
Cara Dillon
Cara Elizabeth Dillon (born 21 July 1975, in Dungiven, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish folk singer. In 1995, she joined the folk supergroup Equation and signed a record deal with Warners Music Group. After leaving t ...
and others.
Death
Tunney died on 7 December 2002 at the age of 81.
He was buried at Conwall Cemetery in
Letterkenny
Letterkenny ( ga, Leitir Ceanainn , meaning 'hillside of the O'Cannons'), nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, a county in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Letterkenny lies on the R ...
.
Discography
*''
The Lark in the Morning'' (1956)
Tradition Records
Tradition Records was an American record label from 1955 to 1966 that specialized in folk music. The label was founded and financed by Guggenheim heiress Diane Hamilton in 1956. Its president and director was Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, who was soon ...
TLP 1004, which also featured
Liam Clancy
Liam Clancy ( ga, Liam Mac Fhlannchadha; 2 September 1935 – 4 December 2009) was an Irish folk singer from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. He was the youngest member of the influential folk group the Clancy Brothers, regarded as Ireland's ...
,
Tommy Makem
Thomas Makem (4 November 1932 – 1 August 2007) was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo ...
and many others.
*''The Man of Songs'' (1962) Folk Legacy FSE 1
*''Paddy Tunney'' (1962) Folk Legacy FSE 7
*''A Wild Bee's Nest'' (1965) Topic 12T139
*''The Irish Edge'' (1966) Topic 12T153
*''Ireland her Own'' (1967) With Arthur Kearney. Also featuring Joe Tunney and Frank Kelly.
*''The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow'' (1975) Topic 12TS264
*''The Flowery Vale'' (1976) Topic 12TS289
*''Lough Erne Shore'' (1982) Mulligan LUNA 334
*''The Stone Fiddle'' (1981) Green Linnet SIF 1037
*''Where the Linnets Sing: Three generations of the Tunney family and their songs'' (1992) Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann CL44
In 2009 ''The Waterford Boys'' from ''A Wild Bee's Nest'' was included in
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...
70 year anniversary boxed set ''
Three Score and Ten
''Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People'' is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label.
The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a paper ...
'' as track two of the third CD.
Writing
Paddy Tunney wrote two books on Irish traditional songs and singers. They are not autobiographies as such, though they are made up largely of personal recollections and memories of people met and songs sung. They are ''The Stone Fiddle: My Way to Traditional Song'', published by Gilbert Dalton, Skerries, Co. Dublin, in 1979, and ''Where Songs do Thunder: Travels in Traditional Song'' which was published in 1991 by Appletree Press, Belfast . Paddy had been writing poetry since childhood and a collection of his work appeared as ''Dúchas and other poems''. Letterkenny: Eagrain Dhun na nGall . In 1990 a collection of his children's stories ''Ulster Folk Stories for Children'' was published by Mercier Press, Cork .
Collector
He collected and sang many songs that have now become standards, including:
*"Moorlough Mary"
*"Lough Erne Shore"
*"Craigie Hill"
*"The Green Fields of Canada"
*"When a Man's in Love"
*"Out of the Window"
*"Easter Snow"
*"As I Roved Out"
*"The Banks of Dunmore"
*"The Blackbird"
*"The Mountain Streams where the Moorcocks Crow"
*"Sheila Nee Iyer"
*"The Rambling Boys of Pleasure"
*"My Charming Buachaill Rua"
*"Lovely Willie"
*"The May Morning Dew"
References
Duffey, Connie (Autumn 2005). "Paddy Tunney: A Man for All Seasons". ''Treoir''. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Retrieved 10 October 2011
a b Fear an tí (17 July 2009). "Paddy Tunney". Musicians. Ramblinghouse. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
Pohle, Horst (1987) ''The Folk Record Source Book''. Berlin: Horst Pohle; p. 473
Pohle, Horst (1987) ''The Folk Record Source Book''. Berlin: Horst Pohle; p. 473
Pohle, Horst (1987) ''The Folk Record Source Book''. Berlin: Horst Pohle; p. 473
All labels & numbers from Pohle, Horst (1987) ''The Folk Record Source Book''. Berlin: Horst Pohle; p. 473
External links
Paddy Tunney – The Man of Songs— biography from
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (; meaning "Society of the musicians of Ireland") is the primary Irish organisation dedicated to the promotion of the music, song, dance and the language of Ireland. The organisation was founded in 1951 and has pr ...
Obituary*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunney, Paddy
1921 births
2002 deaths
Irish poets
Irish folklorists
Irish folk singers
Irish folk-song collectors
Tradition Records artists
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members
People from Letterkenny
20th-century poets
20th-century Irish male singers
20th-century musicologists
Topic Records artists