A lifelong love for John McCormack's music

Virtually every night, Noel Henry retires to the sitting room of his home in Hillquarter, Coosan, and immerses himself in music. Choosing from his vast array of CDs, LPs, 45s, tapes and mini discs, his selection might involve renowned tenors, classical music, traditional jazz or the big band repertoire of Glen Miller. "Music is a great relaxer," he said. "You can take up anything and play it. If it doesn't suit you on that night you move onto something else." While his musical tastes are varied, Noel reserves a special affinity for the recordings of Athlone's own Count John McCormack. "McCormack's expert renditions are without parallel. Some people didn't like his voice, but look at what he could do with that voice!" he enthused. A native of St Kieran's Terrace, Noel recently met with the Westmeath Independent and told us about his background and love of music. The son of Bridget and Jimmy, he was the youngest of nine children. His father was born in 1884 - the same year as John McCormack - and worked as a weaver at the Athlone Woollen Mill, where McCormack's father was a labourer. Noel attended the Marist National School up to the age of 14 and he said one area in which the Marist Brothers excelled was their teaching of music. "People can say what they like about the priests and Brothers but I'd never condemn them. I'd condemn the fellas that went wrong, but nobody of my generation would have got any sort of education unless the Marist Brothers had built and owned the schools," he said. "They were brilliant for music. We came out of the Marist Brothers national school absolutely expert in plain chant, Gregorian chant, Mozart four-part masses in Latin and we can still go through them today. "I've a great interest in tenors and great singers of the past and that's an interest I picked up in the Marist under Brother Patrick." After finishing national school at 14, Noel got a job washing bottles at the Athlone Mineral Water Factory at the back of St Kieran's Terrace. "It was freezing cold but you got free minerals!" he recalled. The eight shillings a week that he earned from the job paid for his enrolment at the technical school, where he studied for two years. After that he got a job as an apprentice mechanic at Gill's in Irishtown and he then went on to become a fully-qualified mechanic. After marrying Angela, he settled in Hillquarter in 1960. He and Angela had five children - Nuala, Edel, Brendan, Aidan and Lelia. In 1961 Noel founded the Midland Bus Company, which is still in operation today. His two sons, Aidan and Brendan, went on to become directors of the company which currently has a fleet of nine buses. Noel is a life-long member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. He said his decision to join in his teenage years was partly motivated by his interest in music. "The only musical instrument I could learn free of charge was the bagpipes and I had to join the Pioneers to get into the pipe band. So I joined the Pioneers before I was 16, I got into the pipe band and I'm still a gold pin pioneer today." He is also the current president of Athlone's Gramophone Society, which has approximately 25 members and meets every fortnight. The members take turns hosting the meetings, at which they play a selection of songs and performances from their own collections. Compiling a selection of music is nothing new to Noel, who at one stage presented a show called 'Sentimental Journey' on Midlands Radio 3. "It was for the older listeners, and we got a lot of requests on it," he said. "There's nobody playing music for the older age groups - all the people who were in the dancehall years in the 40s and 50s. Today none of them can hear their music from likes of Glen Miller who was fabulous." Noel said he probably has the biggest collection of Glen Miller originals in the midlands and he's also an admirer of Louis Armstrong ("the best trumpeter of all time") among many others. But the conversation soon returns to John McCormack, a man who rose from relative poverty to become an international superstar. "McCormack's talent, of course, was spotted by the Marist Brothers and he obviously had a gift for reading music because in his later life, as an expert, they'd give him a song to record and all he'd do was read the words to get the story. He read the music straight off. "At one stage he was earning £160,000 a year from his record sales alone. He did a month's work making a film and was paid £350,000 for it. This was a lad from Athlone who grew up in a family of 11. As a boy, he wouldn't have had a tail end in his britches, no more than any other kid in town," said Noel. "He was a gentleman throughout his life and he never let himself or the town down." Noel's knowledge of McCormack's work led to him hosting a presentation of recordings for the John McCormack Society of Ireland at the Little Theatre just over a decade ago. Playing the Westmeath Independent a small sampling of the tenor's work, he pointed out the clarity of the singing, the extent of McCormack's breath control and the projection of his voice. "This was before there was any amplification, so he would stand at the edge of the stage and he had the great gift of being able to project his voice into every corner of the hall," he marvelled. "There'll never be another McCormack."