I saw the late Pat Kenny in Dickies’ on a couple of occasions and was struck by how the assembled company enjoyed his songs and ditties which identified not only the local landscape but some of the idiosyncrasies of the local populace!
Pat Kennys’ renditions were interspersed by interjections from the audience, sometimes gently berating the author and at other times egging him on. When some of the more serious compositions were recited, you could hear a pin drop in the lounge and even the patrons in the bar would go silent.
One night I engaged Pat in chat and asked him had he written his compositions down and made the remark that it would be a pity if they weren’t recorded for posterity. Pat felt that his work wasn’t worthy of such attention but I must have impressed upon him that local oral history very often disappeared with the composer because some weeks later when my husband and I were in Dickie’s, Pat pressed an envelope into my hand.
To my shame, I held the envelope and did nothing until I heard of Pat’s tragic death on 24th of January last. However, as Pat would say, better late than never – I have typed out the contents of the envelope and essentially have not added text or edited grammatically.
I am grateful to Dickie and Una Beirne who as usual preformed as intermediaries with Pat’s family to inform them that some of Pats work remains and is appreciated and recorded. The original scripts, some of which are handwritten have been returned to his family.
If I remember correctly Pat used to send poems to the Roscommon Champion in the mid 70's. They used to have a Poets Corner there. It was discontinued when it was found out that a least one"poet" was copying entries directly from a book of poetry published in the 1800's.So a look at old issues might unearth some of his originals.
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