Mary Ellen BegleyMary Ellen Begley (née Lynch) a native of Baile na bPuc, west Kerry, died in Dingle Hospital on July 20th at the age of 88. Singer, dancer and mother of nine Begleys, each possessed of a singing voice inherited from both Mary Ellen and her husband, Brendan Begley of Ballydavid.
Always referred to locally as Mary Ellen Lynch, she was born and raised in the family home where she subsequently married, raised her family and from where she was waked with customary west Kerry style for three days.
Her parents, Kate Ferris and Pat Lynch, passed on a love of music, but it was her grand-uncle, fiddler Tom Ferris, who was the key influence.
Her nine children, Máire, Eileen, Seosaimhín, Kathleen, Séamus, Bríde, John, Michael and Brendan, all born at home, learned many of their songs from her, in Irish and in English, including favourites like An Buachaillín Donn, Casadh An tSúgáin, Eamonn An Chnoic and The Man From Laramie. She played the Jew's harp and had a great sense of rhythm, using the bread knife or her fingers to tap rhythms on the kitchen table as she baked and cooked.
She was a big, strong, warm-hearted woman with black curly hair, and a healthy appetite for 'craic' and devilment. She had some 14 dinners to put on the table daily, including her nine offspring, her parents, a workman, her husband Brendan and herself.
Her ability to calm the most obstreperous of cattle was acknowledged within the family too, and she would readily still a distracted animal with ease when her husband had failed to do so before her. In between, she found time to make every stitch of clothes for her nine children.
Her gentle demeanour belied a strength of personality that withstood the trials inherent in raising a big family in rural Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s. Her facility with a verbal arrow that cut unapologetically to the quick, reflected the subtleties of the Irish language, where insults and admonishments can be issued with far greater colour and effectiveness than their dour English counterparts. Her bilingualism fed a robust sense of humour where word-play and punning were an integral part of everyday talk.
The Begleys were all imbued with a strong sense of equality through the actions of their mother, who welcomed everybody to the table, be they visiting Irish-language academics, Irish students, musicians, farm labourers or Travellers mending pots. Parties went on until the early hours, with Mary Ellen in the thick of them, always ready to contribute a song and a dance to every gathering.
She always encouraged her children to enjoy music, but that didn't stop her banishing those struggling to get fingers and hands around the accordion keys of new tunes to the cow house, where their creaky attempts could be buffeted by animal hide and whitewashed walls.
Brendan Begley, her husband, owned the local dance hall in Muiríoch, which was the Carnegie Hall of west Kerry. Despite being castigated from the pulpit, Begley's dance hall was a resounding success, and Máire, Séamus and Brendan cut their musical teeth in the eye of many a marathon céilí there. Mary Ellen lost no opportunity to dance a step, teaching her youngest son Brendan how to waltz out in their yard at home, to the distant strains of Maurice Quinn's music coming across the river.
Recordings of her voice are few, but this year Claddagh Records released a fine collection, Na Caipíní, which featured a number of local singers, including Mary Ellen, who sang An Buachaillín Donn with verve.
She is survived by her nine children.
Mary Ellen Begley (née Lynch): born June 27th, 1916; died 20th July 20th, 2004