Hi Friends,
Does anyone know if any/many recordings are available (in print) of Packie Manus Byrne’s whistle playing? Or if he put out many albums in the past. Just learning about him recently, and very interested in what he sounds like.
Thanks:)
The only one available now is I think Donegal & Back!, VT132, which you can find at http://veteran.co.uk/
There’s some very good stuff on there.
Worth looking out for copies of his LPs:
Songs of a Donegal Man appeared on Topic Records, all ballads. There was a 1969 LP called Packie Byrne published by EFDSS, with songs, a couple of whistle tunes, a bit of lilting and a joke.
With harpist Bonnie Shaljean he also made two LPs for Dingle’s Records of London in the 1970s, The Half Door and Roundtower. They both sing and he plays whistle and she harp and harmonium.
He sings two songs on the Green Linnet compilation, Singing Men of Ulster.
I’ll try to dig up a snippet of his whistling for you… watch this space.
Two tunes recorded at Packie’s house in the early 1980s, both included 20 years later in Packie’s tunebook, A Dossan of Heather:
The wheels of the train (a jig Packie made from the air to a song).
Untitled reel (composed by Packie and later dubbed “Call the horse!”
Hi StevieJ,
Thanks so much for that info, I really appreciate it! 
A question I’ve been meaning to ask you, Steve, is whether Packie’s movie has ever resurfaced. Do you know? What was it called?
As do I! Thank you!
Simon, the film was Black Jack, directed by Ken Loach (of Wind that Shakes the Barley fame). Definitely an oddity in Loach’s body of work, almost a children’s film. I think none of the actors were professionals apart from the leading character and much of the dialogue was improvised.
I never saw it at the time of its release and I never found it on VHS or DVD.
When I arrived in Quebec I learned that in the 1980s and early 1990s it was shown on Quebec TV almost every Christmas but I still never managed to catch it. Finally saw it at a retrospective of Loach’s work at the Cinémathèque québécoise here in Montreal about 10 years ago.
Ha I see somebody is selling one (DVD Region 2) on amazon.com… for $50 ! Anyone want to club together to buy the thing and pass it around?
Oh Steve! 
thank you thank you thank you!!! for making me aware of Amazon and that something is out again. I did check on ebay.com and ordered one there for 48 Dollars. Which is just 36 Euros and cannot believe we are getting to see it, finally.
Brigitte
Btw, 29 of them for “buy-direct” still for sale