Over the years he’s had a lot of visits from television crews as well as trips to studios to record interviews and take part in programmes on traditional culture, and he got involved with a company performing street theatre on Aranmore Island, off the West coast of Donegal in the early days of his retirement. But aside from these excursions into the media, he’s kept a pretty low profile, which makes it easy to underestimate his impact and influence on both his local culture and the broader folk world.


“...a prolific and deft songwriter...”


Much of that impact has come through Packie’s songs. Always a prolific and deft songwriter, he’s had the time to hone his skills further, a fact for which I’ve had cause to be grateful. I think it was around Christmas 1998 that I called on Packie and found him sitting in front of the range, notepad in hand. I asked what he was up to. “I’m composing the words of a very old traditional song”, came the reply. Not only that, he had made the most glorious air for it as well. It was The Hills Of Inishowen and he’d made it with the deliberate intention of fooling the singers in that amazingly rich singing area (where I’d recorded hundreds of


songs from dozens of singers) that I’d collected a song none of them had heard of from a singer none of them knew. He gave me the song to sing the following March at the Inishowen Singing Weekend and the deception worked perfectly. The plan had been for Packie to be there and watch the reaction, but ill-health kept him away. Nonetheless, the reaction of the audience was such that I was besieged by singers wanting to know where I’d got the song and demanding the words – a fair testament to Packie’s skill with pen and tunesmithing. The song is now sung all over the world (Packie had someone sing it over the phone to him from East Africa) and has become almost an anthem in Inishowen. It’s not often that you have the chance to be present when a traditional song is “born”, and equally rare for one songmaker to create so many songs that have found their way into that tradition.


Another song that has entered the local tradition is his tribute to that seminal Donegal fiddler, John Doherty, who Packie knew well. They had a lot in common, neither man being suited to a settled life, and both with a great love of music and song from their native Donegal. Packie started The Donegal Traveller when John died some thirty years ago, but only finished it twenty years later. It tells of the travelling lifestyle and


philosophy in an insightful way, and is popular with audiences wherever the Donegal fiddle style is played and valued. Memories of John remain evergreen in the area, and many will testify to the accuracy of Packie’s description of his character after hearing the song.


One final example of Packie’s songwriting must suffice: many years ago he made a song about his home area, dressed up (as are so many songs) as an emigrant’s lament. It’s called Bruckless Bay, and paints a wonderfully vivid picture of South West Donegal, as well as expressing the yearning of the emigrant in simple, elegant words.


“...Packie will freely admit that his own accounts of his doings vary from one telling to the next, and I’ve frequently accused him of being unable to recognise the truth if it jumped up and bit him!...”


Packie with Bonnie Shaljean


In 2003, the town of Ardara honoured Packie at the annual Cup of Tae Festival (the name comes from a reel made famous by fiddler John “The Tae” Gallagher), and a concert was held to celebrate his music, songs and storytelling. Performers came from all over Ireland and the UK and from as far away as Canada to take part in it and pay tribute to a remarkable man. Needless to say, the MC for the night was a certain Packie Manus Byrne, and Bruckless Bay was sung by Eugene Meehan, who had himself been singing the song for something like 40 years. The entire three hour concert was made up of music, song and stories that all emanated from the head of one man. How many others could have done that – and still had the audience wanting all the items that time had dictated could not be fitted in?


Before leaving the songs, it’s good to know that Bonnie Shaljean has been collating as many of Packie’s songs as she can get hold of. At present, there appear to be no


The Living Tradition - Page 18


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