The house in Portlaoise where I was brought up had no central heating, and whenever we got sick, my
mother would always make up a bed for us in the warm kitchen where we had a solid fuel cooker and Radio Eireann roaring
all day long, and it was here we were gently nursed to recovery. This was the mid 1950's and today I can still remember some of the tunes
that were being played on the "wireless" . I especially remember the Elizabethan Serenade which I thought had a really sad but lovely melody, and the
songs sung by the late Jim Reeves that were definitely my mother's favourites; 'Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone' she sang and sometimes
whistled as she pottered around the kitchen doing her chores to the sound of 'Distant Drums'. I
was about five years old then and try as I may, I don't think I can really recall any tunes or songs prior to this
time.
In primary school I joined the school choir and learned to sing the Latin Mass. 
This was not so
difficult because I had earlier learned the Latin when training to be an altar boy. Brother "The Spirit" Egan, the horror who was in charge of the altar boys had a thing about us biting our nails, and got one of his kicks by lining us up in the mornings and beating the tips of our fingers with a hard stick. Not very funny, and an extremely painful start to your school day. If I can
remember properly I was drafted into the school band by Rev. Brother Nolan who was also
in charge of the choir and he taught me to play the tin whistle. The school band, primarily a marching band but later to develop into concert performers, was made up of tin whistles, accordians and drums. Brother Nolan or 'The Pencil' as we affectionately called
him, was a wonderful teacher who introduced us to traditional Irish music and song, the music of O'Riada, Gilbert & Sullivan and
Rodgers & Hammerstein amongst others. Unknown to us, the seeds of tolerance, tolerance of
all forms of music and cultures were being sown in us by Brother Nolan. Along with my brother I soon learned that Radio Luxemburg and Radio Caroline, if a good reception
could be found on the old wireless, were the stations to tune in to and I regularily watched (or tried to)
the rock and roll shows on the BBC through an on-screen snow blizzard at my Aunt Mollie's, she being one
of a small few who actually posessed a television set in Portlaoise. The arrival of our first record player
(box shaped with hinged lid and two knobs) was definitely a milestone, despite the fact that we had to take it to the local
electrician for a lesson on how to operate it properly. To my knowledge the first LP to have been played
on this old box was one of the following;
David McWilliams (Featuring the "Days Of Pearly Spencer")
The Beach Boys (I think it was called "Surf's Up")
The Ivy League ( A "Best Of" on the Marble Arch label)
