John Reilly (singer)


John "Jacko" Reilly, was a traditional Irish singer. He was a settled Irish Traveller who lived in Boyle, County Roscommon, but hailed originally from Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim. He was a profound influence on many popular folk and traditional singers, based largely on recordings of his singing by the Irish song collector Tom Munnelly which were however not released until after his early death in 1969 at the age of 44.

Biography

Reilly was born at Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim around 1926 to an Irish Traveller family that also included seven sisters and a single brother, Martin. Both his mother and father were singers and passed on to him much of their repertoire. The family travelled the roads of Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon where after the manner of the times the travellers would thatch, sweep chimneys and do various odd jobs, and also assist with haymaking or harvesting on farms, although for the latter John would frequently be passed over in favour of stronger-looking workers on account of his slight build and relatively frail appearance. He developed a personal preference for, and skill at, tinsmithing, the making of buckets, candlesticks and similar domestic utensils out of tin. During the Second World War, John moved with his family to Belfast, it being easier to get tin in the North than the South at that time, and other provisions were also more easily obtainable; in 1953, John returned to Carrick-On-Shannon.
John's mother and father died when he was young and he was left to raise his siblings on his own. In 1962 he took up residence in Boyle, County Roscommon, where he remained for the rest of his relatively short life. In Boyle he repaired bread tins for Egan's Bakery on Green Street, and also sold buckets and billycans which he had made. Although there was general prejudice against Travellers in many places at that time, he seems to have found in Boyle a place where he was well treated and respected and one resident in particular, a publican called Mrs Grehan, took an interest in John's welfare and sometimes gave him meals in her kitchen, where he also got to be known by Mrs Grehan's then young daughters. Unfortunately by the mid 1960s Reilly was living in reduced circumstances in a derelict house on Green Street and was not feeding himself well, which had a deleterious effect on his already somewhat frail health.
In 1964 the Irish song collector Tom Munnelly heard Reilly singing at a Fleadh in Boyle and the following year, at a time when Munnelly was collecting music as just a sideline from his regular job, he travelled to Boyle to record him for the first time. Munnelly was amazed at the store of traditional ballads and other songs that Reilly knew and would sing for anyone who asked, including a version of "The Maid and the Palmer", which Reilly called "The Well Below the Valley", that had not been collected in the oral tradition for 150 years, as well as others infrequently noted in Ireland. Munnelly recorded Reilly singing for a second time in Grehan's Pub in Boyle in 1966 on "a machine which left a lot to be desired", and again in 1967 both in Boyle and in a pub in the village of Gurteen, Co. Sligo, where Reilly was visiting; that same year he took Reilly to Dublin for a short holiday during which time he sang for an audience at The Tradition Club in Capel Street, although other clubs in Dublin at that time would not give the floor to genuine traditional singers. Reilly later told Munnelly that this brief stay in Dublin was "one of the happiest periods in his life". In 1969, D. K. Wilgus, a professor of folksong in the University of California Los Angeles, visited Ireland and was told by Munnelly of Reilly and that same weekend the two set off for Boyle to record him. Recording equipment was set up in the back room of Grehan's pub and between Saturday night and Sunday morning Reilly recorded about 36 songs and ballads for them. Unfortunately the singer was suffering from a cold and his regular friend, Mrs Grehan, was away in hospital for three months undergoing a hip operation so was unable to look after him. When Munnelly and Wilgus returned to Boyle a few weeks later hoping to find Reilly in better health, they found him in a very poor state in his derelict house having had no food for several days and suffering from pneumonia. After failing to revive his spirits in a bar, Munnelly drove him first to a doctor and then to Roscommon Hospital where he was treated but discharged after a few days, however a week later, and after Munnelly had departed, Reilly collapsed in the streets of Boyle and was taken to the Boyle Cottage Hospital, where he died soon after, aged only 44.
A set of 18 Reilly tracks recorded by Munnelly was released on cassette on the "Folktrax" label in 1975, followed in 1978 by 14 Munnelly recordings officially released as "The Bonny Green Tree: Songs of an Irish Traveller" by Topic Records in 1978. Other recordings of John's singing are held in the Folklore Section of University College Dublin and The University of North Carolina, U.S.A. as part of the Professor D.K. Wilgus Collection.
Munnelly played a tape of Reilly singing "The Well Below the Valley" to the Irish singer Christy Moore who subsequently performed it on Planxty's album The Well Below the Valley. Moore also recorded "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy", first on Prosperous and then again with Planxty on their first album: Planxty, again sourced from Munnelly's recordings of Reilly. Sinéad O'Connor later recorded Reilly's "Lord Baker" as a duet with Moore on her 2002 album Sean-Nos Nua, but with amended words and music. Moore has also gone on to sing "Green Grows The Laurel" as well as "What Put The Blood" and "Tippin it Up" from Reilly's repertoire, and has hinted he may yet do others.
Moore had in fact already encountered Reilly during visits to Grehan's pub in the mid 1960s, where the presence of the singing Grehan sisters was a drawcard for young, male would-be singers of Moore's generation. Moore's friend and travelling companion Davoc Rynne wrote of them hearing Reilly for the first time:
Older residents of Boyle remember Reilly as a basically shy, kind-hearted man; in his liner notes to "The Bonny Green Tree", Munnelly wrote:
A Plaque commemorating John Reilly was unveiled outside Grehans old pub in 2014 by the Grehan Sisters. The proceeds of a Concert given by Christy Moore and the Grehan Sisters in Boyle in 2014 financed the erection of the Plaque for John Reilly. In October 2018, both John Reilly and Tom Munnelly were posthumously inducted into the Irish Traditional Music Hall of Fame at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.

Discography

Several tracks from The Bonny Green Tree are included on the 1998 Topic "Voice of the People" compilation series, as follows: