Madam, - In Michael Dervan's fine appreciation of the late Bernadette Greevy's career (The Irish Times, September 30th) he refers to some of her recordings, not including mention of three LPs, recorded in Dublin, which I have in my possession.
He writes of "what the youthful Greevy sounded like" in relation to her 1967 Proms appearance. Before then, however, in the mid-1960s, the London-based Argo record company made two LPs of Irish songs and ballads with Our Lady's Choral Society and the (then) Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra plus a sextet from the Light Orchestra, directed by my father, Col James Doyle.
Bernadette Greevy and Harold Grey, bass, were featured soloists on these discs, Ireland Mother Ireland (ZRG5434) and Let Erin Remember (ZRG5460).
Probably aimed at the American market, these records boasted many new arrangements both choral and orchestral, by Moira Griffith-Reid and James Bolger respectively.
Impressed by Bernadette Greevy's contribution, Argo invited her to make a solo album, which she did in 1965, recording a lovely LP entitled Over Here (RG459) of 14 Irish airs, again with my father and the Light Orchestra sextet with Jeannie Reddin, piano, and Mercedes Bolger, harp. Bernadette may not have been gifted with the stagecraft of a impressive actress, but this recording is a perfect example of how she could change the colour of her voice from the happy childishness of The Ninepenny Fidil to the heartbroken mother of Wee Hughie, the abandoned girlfriend in The Lover's Curse or the bereaved woman of Sea Wrack. I hope this recording is still in the catalogues or, if not, that it can be revived in her memory. - Yours, etc,
MARGARET HEALY-DOYLE,
Greenville Terrace,
Dublin 8.