Family Fortunes: The West’s Awake stirs memories of my father’s voice

Listening to Ronan Collins on lunchtime radio recently, I was stopped in my tracks when I heard him announce he was going to play a version of The West's Awake performed by Lumiere. It's not a song I have heard often on the radio over the years, but is one that has the power to evoke poignant memories for me.

I was immediately taken back to my childhood, and our annual family trip to Ballycastle, Co Mayo, for our holidays at my paternal grandmother’s house. Every July we would make the long journey west, which in those days seemed to take the entire day. It must have seemed endless to our parents also, given that when we had only reached, say, Lucan, we would ask , “Are we nearly there?”

My dad, along with countless other young people, had emigrated to England in the 1930s in search of work. He met and married my mother (from Roscommon) in London after the second World War and they returned to settle in Dublin in the late 1940s. The highlight of his year (and ours) was the trip west to visit the village where he had grown up, and particularly to see his widowed mother and other members of the family .

Dad was a soft-spoken man of very few words, and I only ever heard him sing on three occasions, all of which occurred in the car on journeys to Ballycastle. On these occasions, once we had passed the rickety bridge at Tarmonbarry, his spirits would seem to lift and he would begin, “When all beside a vigil keep, the West’s asleep, the West’s asleep.” He had a lovely voice and sang it with passion, and it made a huge impression on me as a young child.

In recent years I obtained his original primary school certificate, awarded in 1930. In addition to obtaining passes in the standard subjects, Irish, English, history, geography and maths he also sat an examination in an extra subject – singing – which ties in with my memory of his lovely singing voice.

Sadly, my dad, Michael Winters, died very shortly after retiring, at 66. After a life spent working extremely hard for his family it seemed so unfair that he didn’t get more time to enjoy his retirement with my mam. Had he lived, he would have celebrated his 100th birthday on January 6th this year. He is much missed.