Christie Hennessy: Christie Hennessy, who has died aged 62, turned down a chance to join the band that became Fleetwood Mac and instead concentrated on pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter.
He went on to write chart-topping hits for Frances Black, Moya Brennan of Clannad and Christy Moore, and released eight albums as a solo artist.
Consisting mostly of self-penned songs, his albums include tracks co-written with other writers, among them Tanita Tikaram.
While he absorbed a variety of musical forms, a subtle blues influence is evident in his music, reflecting the fact that Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt were among his early musical heroes. His best-known song is Don't Forget Your Shovel, and others include All the Lies That You Told Me, I'm an Ordinary Man and On the Road Again.
Unable to read or write, and diagnosed as dyslexic, he devised a novel method of songwriting. "I get a blank tape and sing into it for hours and hours, then listen back to it - it's like a jigsaw, with me joining up all the bits that I like."
Born into the Ross family in Tralee, Co Kerry, in 1945, he was the youngest of nine children. His father, an electrician, played the accordion and his parents hosted music sessions at their home on Saturday nights.
His father's death at 42, when he was six, contributed to an unsettled childhood. Almost seven when he was enrolled in school, he left after only four years. He hated school, and the memory of corporal punishment never left him. Following a stint as a messenger boy, at the age of 15 he emigrated and worked on building sites in London. The Sixties blues revival was under way and by night he played with countless bands as a drummer.
Peter Green approached him at a gig in Brixton and asked if he would be interested in joining a band that he, Green, was in the process of forming. Hennessy said "No", leaving the way open for Mick Fleetwood to fill the vacancy. He never regretted his decision.
"I wouldn't really have paid my dues as a songwriter in the way I have, if I'd become famous at the time," he said subsequently.
A spell out of work prompted him to put a notice in a shop window: "If you want a song written, I'll do it for £5." He was thrilled to be offered £25 by the manager of a singing duo, and put a special effort into writing If You Were to Fall. But the deal fell through, the song rejected as "absolute s***".
He persevered and paid his dues as a solo performer. However, life on the road was tough. "I couldn't begin to count the amount of times I went around Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds playing to 150 people a night," he recalled. "At one point I got home [ to London] after being 20 nights away and, though I'd made enough money to pay for things with the family for the time I was away, I was still worried about where I was going to earn more money from."
Such was the strain that he came close to a breakdown. His wife Jill, recognising the warning signs, sought medical help for him, and treatment in hospital was recommended. But he chose to remain at home and, with his wife's support, made a good recovery.
His breakthrough as a songwriter came when Christy Moore recorded two of his songs, Don't Forget Your Shovel and Messenger Boy. However, it was not an entirely happy experience.
"All I got from the original publishing contract I did for Don't Forget Your Shovel was £350, though that had nothing to do with Christy Moore," he said. "But Christy's manager Mattie Fox made sure I got a better deal for Messenger Boy, and now when I see the statements breaking down the performance royalties and recording royalties, I know I should have gotten a hell of a lot more than £350 for the first song."
Shortly afterwards, following a gig at Whelan's in Dublin, he was offered a recording deal by Dave Pennefather of Son Records, an offshoot of the U2-owned Mother label. The resultant album The Rehearsal, released in 1991, outsold U2 in Ireland that year and he won the IRMA Best Newcomer Award.
But before long relations with Son turned sour and he moved to the Warner Brothers label. He enjoyed considerable success as a solo performer, touring Ireland and Britain. Yet, he admitted to feeling ambivalent towards fame and took a career break.
In 2005 he teamed up with Neil and Calum MacColl, sons of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, who produced his album Stories for Sale. He also resumed touring.
He was attracted by the literacy programme of the charity Children in Crossfire and donated all the royalties from the single A Price for Love to it. More recently, he was reunited with Dave Pennefather, with whom he recorded two albums.
He lived at Sutton, near Wimbledon, and had a house in Tralee. His wife Jill, daughters Hermione and Amber and son Tim survive him.
Christie Hennessy: born 1945; died December 10th, 2007