SARAH ANN O'NEILL:TRADITIONAL SINGER Sarah Ann O'Neill, who has died at 92, was a quiet, old-style countrywoman on the surface. She was probably the last of Ulster's older generation of traditional singers, formed musically before widespread recording and broadcasting and fleadh ceoils.
She was rooted in her native place of Derrytresk, Co Tyrone, on the southwest corner of Lough Neagh. She was born there on August 19th, 1919, the eldest of five boys and four girls, to Joe Hanna and his wife, Elizabeth (née Hughes). Elizabeth’s first husband had died young, so she had three half-brothers – Arthur, John and Owen Campbell. She was particularly close to her brother Geordie, also a major traditional singer.
The Hannas were steeped in music. The houses of the extended Hanna family were places where people gathered to sing. Joe Hanna was a labourer who played the fiddle and sang.
She was educated at Kingsisland primary school. As was usual at the time, she left school at 14. First she went to work in a cafe in Belfast, then she returned home, as a domestic servant to a well-to- do family in her area. In her early 20s she married John O’Neill, a small farmer from her townland.
She sang her whole life, whatever task she was performing, not because the songs were cultural artefacts, but because she liked the song and felt like singing.
She was probably the last of that small, scattered number who kept traditional singing alive before its revival began in the 1960s. Traditional music was not at all fashionable. Her love for the old songs means there was traditional music for the revival to revive.
In the late 1950s, she was introduced to a wider audience. A man called McCann from Dungannon taped her singing at a sing-song in one of the Hanna houses. He took the tape to song collectors Seán Ó Baoill and Gerry Hicks. They were excited at what they heard and went to meet the singer. “That was the first time I knew I was a traditional singer,” Sarah Ann joked.
She was a living repository, carrying hundreds of songs in her head – and knowing how to sing them. Her style had similarities to sean-nós, but was not as ornate.
Although there was only a little ornament, she knew exactly where to put it. Most of her songs were from Ulster, many local versions of widely known songs. Her favourite was probably Dobbin’s Flowery Vale, a song of Armagh city.
She was influential. She travelled to fleadhs and festivals and many singers learned from her. Equally, she was willing to be influenced. If she heard a song and liked it, she learned and sang it. She took several songs from Frank Harte, the Dublin singer and collector Dublin. They were definitely not Ulster songs, but they fulfilled her condition of being good.
In 1974, she made her first recording, with her brother Geordie. That brought her not just to a national audience, but an international one. Fame in traditional music circles did not make her any less modest.
She continued as a major figure in traditional music. In 2009 she won the Gradam Ceoil TG4 in 2009 for her lifetime achievement. She was proud that her family had continued the musical tradition. Last year her grandson Cathal O’Neill won first prize in English-language traditional singing at the All-Ireland Fleadh Ceoil.
Sarah Ann was predeceased by her husband John and son John. She is survived by her sisters, May Ellen (McGuinness), Teresa (McLaughlin) and Rosaleen (Campbell) and by her brother Paddy (Hanna); by her seven daughters and four sons, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchild.
Sarah Ann O’Neill: born August 19th, 1919, died April 13th, 2012.