fRoots

[Vic Smith]

This from Reg Hall
I'm sorry to have to tell you that Joe Whelan died unexpectedly in his sleep on Tuesday. The funeral will be in Sussex on Friday 6 August at 11.00. Further details later.
Reg

Elsewhere, Reg wrote
Joe Whelan was born and brought up at Eglish, midway between Birr and Cloghan in Co. Offaly. There was a single-row melodeon in the house which his grandmother and mother played but they later acquired a two-row accordeon in B & C and it was on this that he started, at the age of about twelve. Joe listened to the renowned accordeon player Francie Brereton when he came to work in Cloghan but Joe actually received few tips from anyone and evolved a style of his own.

In the first ten years after the war, traditional music was attracting an active following in rural Ireland, and Joe's teenage years were swept along in the tide of this new excitement.

Joe arrived in England in 1960 and found himself amongst like minded musicians and he was soon leading his own bands. Family commitments led to Joe's semi-retirement from music for a while and then at the end of the 1980s he was invited to play in the Goldsmith Arms in Penge with an old friend Michael McMahon. Liam Farrell had played there some time previously, and he was now at a bit of a loose end following Raymond Roland's death. Joe and Liam came together and a new partnership was born.

[Vic Smith]

The funeral is 11.00, Friday 6 August at St Edwards RC Church, Keymer, Sussex [near Lewes]. Bridie is expecting music in the pub afterwards.