Johnny Leary of Sliah Luachra has died
Hi Peter
Sorry to hear about Johnny. I have great memories of him playing in Hennessy’s in Miltown during Willie week. He spent the whole week there playing for the dancers. A lot of musicians that I know would try to spend at least one afternoon playing with him.
I travelled out to Knocknagree to see him during the Padraigh O’Keefe weekends but couldn’t get in the door.
Regards
John
He’ll be sorely missed. It’s great he received the TG4 lifetime achievement award recently. he played at the awards ceremony with the Four Star Trio [Jackie Daly couldn’t make it] and after there was a huge reception in his honour where literally everybody turned up and I was told it was a great night. It’s great so he received the honours he deserved during his lifetime. It’s very sad though to see another link to the past, another time, severed.
There’s one great story illustrating Johnny’s wit that Jackie Daly always tells, one time Sandra Joyce of the World Music Centre at UCL had arranged to come over with a group of foreign students and talk to Johnny. When they arrived at his doorstep Johnny had obviously forgotten they’d come but they started chatting away, Sandra translating for the foreign student group. At some point she was asking him about Tom Billy Murphy, the fiddle player. Could he give a comment on him? Looking at the translator and her job in mind Johnny said ‘they say he had an awful big Mickey’.
Sad news.
I met him at the Cornwall Folk Festival in about 1993, give or take a year or two. The pints were flowing even though it was only mid-afternoon. He was a bundle of energy and good humour.
Steve.