A Bard Passes

Tommy Makem died yesterday at 74. Like most descendants of the Irish diaspora, my first exposure to Irish music (taking aside my grandfather’s renditions of “Danny Boy”) was a CD of the best of Makem and his frequent collaborators the Clancy Brothers. The music they played plucked at my soul in a way that I hadn’t experienced before, despite its occasional over-heartiness.

It was years later that I first heard Makem live in concert, in the annual shows he gave on St. Patrick’s Day at St. Anselm College in my home town of Manchester, NH. Hearing him sing “Four Green Fields”, a simple plea for Ireland to be left to her own devices, couched in terms from Irish folklore, was one of the few times I can recall being moved to tears by music.

I was privileged to see Makem in concert on a few other occasions, and remained just as impressed. He could tell a rare story, and a rolling baritone that could intone Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree in a way that could make a whole auditorium hold its breath. For me, personally, his music sparked a lifelong love of Irish music that has enriched my life.

My thanks to you, Tommy Makem, for all you have given, and I hope that you’ve found a place where “peace comes dropping slow.”