Illustration | Libby McCrohan
In this section, I recall memories of my dad over the years and how I remember him both as a musician and a person. As his daughter, these were one in the same as you never experienced one without the other. Every experience he had as a person informed his musicianship. Through the highs and lows of his life, I hear these times when he plays. From the heady days of the 1970s where you can hear the invincibility and excitement he had in his twenties all the way through to his last years of playing that were more considered and mature. His playing never stopped changing throughout his life bar one aspect, his musical voice. He always sounded just like himself regardless of what changed in his approach. For me personally, the most exciting part of this project has been hearing the Breathnach recordings. I had never heard my dad play with a strong Donegal ‘accent’ before. Also in those recordings, you can hear where he has been learning rolls but only put them in to his own two compositions, ‘The Green Fields of Glentown’ and ‘La Casa Mulligan’. Interestingly, ‘La Casa Mulligan’ also had a different third part then to what we are now used to hearing. As a musician, he loved to spend time with others of the same mind. From Donegal to Dublin, Dublin to Clare, Clare to Boston and the final journey home, he spoke of many that touched him. And if I may on his behalf and on the behalf of my family, thank all of those people who took time out to visit him and spend time with him. This was never as valuable as in his final years when he could no longer play. The time spent in the little house in Miltown or at his home in Kinnycally meant the world to him. Thank you.
– Siobhán Peoples
