Brendan Forkin

MEMORIES of Brendan Forkin take me back to the days when James Drury as The Virginian was king of the small screen. Brendan came from up the road in my home village of Cloonmore, around three miles from Kiltimagh. He had a lock of years to spare on me but, like the other families along the road, the Hylands, Forkins, Hegartys, Flatleys and Mike Curley, I knew him since I was a child.

In his early 20s Brendan would head off on his bike to The Savoy in Kiltimagh to see some of his favourite western films. No doubt, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were high on his list and I’m sure Kirk Douglas and a few others were not far behind. Country people of that era had a fascination with the western movies, the wide open spaces of The Big Country resonates in the hearts of rural people around the world.

I was in my mid-teens when I first heard the name of Charley Pride. It was my neighbour Brendan who asked me if I had come across him on the radio. Charley was just making a name for himself on the American country scene.

Brendan liked what he heard on American Forces Network (AFN) coming in late at night on the mediumwave band from a station in Germany. It was the era of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard and Porter Wagoner and Tom T Hall and some of the true greats that brought country music into the hearts and homes of millions around the world. Brendan knew what he liked in country music and he certainly knew the best.

In the years that were to follow, Brendan chose to live a quiet life. He kept himself in touch with local, national and international news through the newspapers, radio and television. He was a learned and articulate gentleman who also took a keen interest in art and painting.

Like us all, he could never have imagined that our childhood hero cowboy, The Virginian, would one day arrive in our village as he truly did three years ago when on his first trip to Ireland. And little did I think back then when Brendan first mentioned Charley Pride to me that 30 year later I would do a personal interview with him in the Europa Hotel in Belfast. The ways of the world are sometimes stranger than fiction.

Brendan walked quietly through this world, a hindrance to no one. He was shaped by the same people, neighbours, accents, winds and fields as the rest of us. He too was part of Cloonmore …the big meadow, one of our own. Farewell, Brendan. Peace to your gentle soul.

He is survived by his sisters Mary (Cloonmore) and Monica Lennon (Leeds), brother-in-law Michael, relations, fiends and neighbours. - MC.