Adios Johny

His story is a very hot and cold one, very happy and very sad.  He was born in 1945 and his dad passed away when Johny was young. He used to work in his early married years in the Sunbeam factory in Cork, and I have met people who knew him then and they all say he was full of devilment.  He started playing music and could play 6 instruments, but more imporant than his music was the atmosphere he created any time he was on or off stage.  He played with Finnigan’s Wake for about 12 years or so, and any of the lads could spend a week telling stories of the fantastic crazy things that he pulled off.

I didn’t get to know Johny until about 8 or 9 years ago and nobody ever made me laugh like he did, and I don’t expect anyone will again either.  Whether it was walking around Shanghai asking the Chinese where China Town was, or pretending to be a doctor while talking to 5 or 6 other doctors for an hour, and knowing more about medicine than pigs do about holidays.  I could go on forever.  He was a seriously intelligent man, and we used to have long conversations when we were together which were always very interesting.  He was a very original character who never missed an opportunity to have a laugh, and never at others´ expense – unless they deserved it!

His life was centered around music, and up to a few years ago there were very few nights that he wasn’t either playing a session or a gig somewhere.  Unfortunately, he became very depressed and paranoid about 3 years ago, and despite all the help he got from his friends and family he made an attempt at suicide 20 months ago, and was pulled out of the river Lee, barely alive.  He spent the last 20 months of his life in a coma in hospital in Cork, and sadly passed away last Saturday week.  Again unfortunately, it wasn’t my first experience of suicide, having lost my great friend Kevin, who also happened to be my brother, and a musician as well, to the same fate 12 years ago.

In Johny’s case, there were a few things which contributed to his depression, but I am only going to talk about one of them here.  There is a man in Cork who contributed greatly to Johny’s demise, and I’m sure many others´ as well.  We had a great culture of music, craic and socialising in Ireland, and we used to draw tourists by the thousands to Ireland because of the fantastic atmosphere we used to create in our pubs.  Then this Cork gentleman came along and destroyed the whole lot in a matter of days, single-handedly.  His name is Micheál Martin.  This poor ejet got carried away with the EU and the Celtic Tiger and forgot that all we have in Ireland is agricultural land and tourism.  He killed the pub culture with the stroke of a pen and contributed to the deaths of many others like Johny, and people who were used to mixing in pubs and found there was no one to mix with anymore, closing off their social outlet.  I smoke, and I wouldn’t want non-smokers to have to inhale my smoke, but with proper extraction systems and smoking areas *in* bars, there would have been no problem.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bold Micheál also oversaw the Health Board that discharged Johny from the psychiatric hospital he was admitted to without even informing his family.  Johny was standing outside the hospital on the street with his bag telephoning his wife Margret to come and get him, and a very unwell man.  It was only a matter of weeks before he was pulled out of the river. 

People like Johny, who made more of a difference to Irish tourism than any Bord Failte spending millions, should have been treated far better than he was by our state.  These a*sholes were messing with something that brought millions to Ireland, and at the same time they lost the big picture as you all can see now, with billions lent to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, etc etc.

Since Johny became unwell I seldom go out in Cork now.  I have missed his company big time over the past 2 years and the long conversations and the craic we used to have.  I am convinced that Micheál Martin has killed more with his stupid laws by closing off the social outlet of people living on their own in Ireland, and those who made their living from music, which in turn is a contributing factor to the rise in suicides all across our country.  Maybe these a*sholes could be tried for murder!

Anyway, I just want to offer my condolences to Johny’s wife Margret, and two daughters Shirley and Siobhan, who were with him every day practically for the past 20 months, and to thank the fantastic nurses who kept him as comfortable as possible during this time.  May you rest in peace, me old buddy, and the next pint is on you, when I catch up with you again!