Vincent (Vincie) Boyle, a native of
Mount Scott, Mullagh, grew up on a farm, but left in 1978 to live
in Miltown Malbay. Now in his fifties [in 2004] he has sung all his
life and comes from a musical and singing background; his father was
a singer, his brother James is a whistle and harmonica player and
many others of his family sang and played. His nephew is the well-known
flute player, Kevin Crawford.
Taken from ‘Around the Hills
of Clare: Songs and Recitations from the Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie
Collection’ (2004) Musical Traditions Records MTCD331-2/Góilín
Records 005-6.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vincie Boyle talks to
Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie, November 2003:
Jim: Give us your name first?
Vincie: Well, I’m Vincie Boyle from Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
I worked all my life in buildings, here, every place around Ireland.
And then I stayed around then after building my own place here, I
started work locally and now I’m retired.
Jim: Where are you from originally?
Vincie: I come from Mount Scott, that be four
miles south of here and my father was a great man for singing, lots
of songs mostly ones about the Black and Tans - rebel songs. He was
a very comic man, he liked all type of music, danced - tell you funny
stories - a lot of them lies. With people coming on cuairt
[a visit] at night then, a great man use to come to us - he was a
mighty man for telling stories too, was a man, Paddy Darcy. He went
by the name of ‘The Chinaman’ and he use to play a bit
on the fiddle. He wasn’t a great man to the play fiddle I must
say, and then we use have another man coming as well, Micko Reddan
- he use to play fiddle as well and sometimes they use to play together
and my father would have us all up on the floor dancing. Well, you
wouldn’t call it dancing but it was flying around the floor
anyway trying to keep up with the speed. So that’s about it,
that much anyway.
Jim: You were born at home in Mount Scott and
how long ago was that Vincie?
Vincie: I was born in July 1946
Jim: Ok that’s grand. Was anybody else
a singer – your mother a singer?
Vincie: No my mother wasn’t a singer
but she was very fond of music. All belonging to her played music.
Josie Hayes was her first cousin and they were born the same day -
the 10th March, 1912 - and then she was also a first cousin of Tom
Lenihan the great singer and her uncle Pat O’Brien that lived
in Frahane - he was great man for the music, he loved singing, his
favorite song was ‘Banbridge Town’ – ‘The
Star of the County Down’ and he use to jig a tune. His favorite
tune was ‘Mount Famous’.
Jim: What was your mother’s name?
Vincie: She was Margaret Moroney from Dunsallagh.
She was reared at her uncle’s place in Frahane. She was only
about a year old when she was brought over to her uncle’s. She
was a Frahane woman more than a Dunsallagh woman.
Jim: And your father was Mount Scott?
Vincie: He was Mount Scott and his father came
from Quilty, Martin Boyle.
Jim: How far back would that be then, Quilty?
Vincie: Well it would be the 1800s sure.
