Then & Now: Time to get together and sing again in Limerick

GARRY MCMAHON Singing Weekend hosted by the West Limerick Singing Club will take place in Abbeyfeale from Friday, October 14, to Sunday, October 16.
The official opening is by special guest Éamonn Ó hArgáin, Uachtaran Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann at The Ramble Inn on Friday night at 8pm. It will be followed at 9pm by a singing session in The Ramble Inn. A history and song talk by Martin Moore historian will be held in Fr Casey's Clubhouse at 11am, on Saturday.
The newly composed ballad competition will be held at the Ramble Inn at 2.30pm. Mass for deceased members and friends of the West Limerick Singing Club will be celebrated in the Church of the Assumption Abbeyfeale at 6-30pm. Grand Concert and tribute to Philip Enright will be held in Fr Casey's Clubhouse at 2.30pm. Concert tickets €10 to include raffle tickets. Farewell singing session in the Ramble Inn from 9pm, will conclude the weekend activities.
It returns after a two year break due to Covid and should attract people from all parts of Ireland and abroad. It is a wonderful get together of singers, poets and storytellers to honour one of their own from nearby Listowel. The West Limerick Singing Club was formed in 2002 and the members meet once a month in the Ramble Inn in Abbeyfeale. Over the years they have met in various locations around the area to entertain and share their songs, which help to preserve them for future generations. The Garry Mc Mahon Singing Weekend was established in 2009 to honour his major contribution to song and ballad a year after his death. He attended many singing clubs around and entertained audiences to his many compositions during this time. Garry was generous with his time and talents, but he also appreciated his fellow singer’s contributions.
He had few equals as a traditional singer, and he was a County, Munster and All Ireland champion in Comhaltas competitions. He was also a versatile composer of traditional and other songs, a talent he inherited from his late father Bryan, who was a writer, and teacher, and a collector of ballads. Bryan’s great passion saved many songs that would have been lost and forgotten about otherwise and he also had his own Radio programme called The Ballad Maker back in the 1950s and 1960s. Garry was the eldest of five sons born (to Kitty and Bryan) into a remarkably cultured family in Listowel where Irish was as easily spoken in the home as English. A great emphasis was placed on all things cultural and Garry as a boy became proficient as a singer, especially in the Sean Nós genre. In later life he became a great friend of the late Con Greaney the renowned singer from Rooskagh whose style was unique and greatly admired by Garry. This early interest in singing prepared him for composing ballads which turned out to be a very enjoyable pastime for him later on.
Garry has composed a number of gems over the years that are constantly played on all the local Radio Stations. His best-known compositions include The Land of the Gael, My Own Newcastle West, The Hills around Listowel, An Effin Man (about Effin in Limerick) The Kingdom’s Green and Gold, Lament for Tommy Quaid and countless others. Over the years he appeared on national Television and Radio as well as on the local Radio Stations which featured his many self penned songs and ballads. He recorded the most of his own material on tape and CD and he released ‘’Songman’’ shortly before his death with the proceeds going to aid Saint Gabrielle’s Centre in Limerick. He put great thought and feeling into his writing being a thinking man which was rewarded with sweet flowing verses. He was a treasure to have in our midst and a wordsmith of sheer quality who the figure with the scythe robbed us of many more compositions.
We were all caught on the hop by his passing just like he caught the Roscommon defence napping in 1962 to score the fastest ever goal in an All-Ireland Senior Football Final up to a few years ago. In sporting terms, he is best remembered for that amazing feat after 34 seconds that stunned Roscommon and led to him receiving his second All Ireland medal. He had won his first Celtic Cross as a substitute in 1959 and he also won Munster and National League medals. He was a proud Kerryman, but we won’t hold that against him and in 1965 he was coach of the Limerick football team than ran his native county so close in the Munster final. He was passionate about all things Kerry sport, culture, tradition, its people and places. A native of Listowel he crossed the boundary to Newcastle West in the early sixties to set up a law practice. Kerry’s loss was definitely Limerick’s gain as he went on to leave his mark on Shannonside. He settled well and over the years immersed himself in town events and continued to grow his business.
He could chat and converse with all and he had time for rich and poor alike. A person would be enriched after spending time in his company as his like was rare and hard to find in a provincial town. A storyteller ballad singer composer poet and a fluent Irish singer his passing in 2008 was a great loss to all. Garry had so much to offer in retirement, when he would have more time for his favourite pastimes. He used his time well to link traditional events people and places from the past through his writing composing and singing. He was a proud man after his Irish Mass was celebrated on RTE and he composed other masses in Irish and a Saint Bridget’s hymn for the blessed Well celebrations which were held on February 1 each year, a short distance from his house in Cullinagh.

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Garry owned a number of horses with his friends over the years and the Kerry colours were well represented and many visits were made to the winner’s enclosure. He wrote a lovely ballad about the town’s legendary horse trainer Tommy Walker which was very well received in racing circles. Comhaltas and Fleadh Cheoil were close to his heart, and he was both a competitor and adjudicator and he promoted their activities at home and on trips abroad. He was the Feadh Rúaní when Newcastle West hosted the Munster Fleadh Cheoil for the first time in 1965 and he enjoyed and often wrote about the showmanship of the Sheehy brothers from Barnigue as they competed for Munster and All Ireland Bodhran titles. He was a member of the Desmond Drama Group and he appeared with the Ardagh Drama Group in ‘’Philadelphia Here I come showing another side of his vast array of talents. Much more could be written about Garry, but I am sure he will be well remembered in song and story this weekend thanks to the West Limerick Singing Club.