Remembering Mayo's famous tenor John Feeney

by Auld Stock

COUNTY Mayo has produced many outstanding artistes over the years, none more so than John Feeney, tenor, a native of Swinford.

After working for some years in England, where he sang at concerts, John emigrated to the United States in 1928.

It was in the US that Feeney’s genuine talent was recognised.

John used the same recording studios as Count Basie, Louie Armstrong and Bing Crosby.

He was in good company as those artistes were attached to the Decca Record Company, the biggest recording company in America.

John Feeney regularly sang to sell-out recitals in Carnegie Hall. His favourite songs included ‘Moonlight in Mayo’ and ‘Galway Bay’. He also sang classical pieces by Mozart and Handel.

An old neighbour of mine, Nancy Kerruish, a relative of the McGough family, McHale Road, told me many years ago that she, along with a group of Mayo people, heard John Feeney sing at a concert in New York.

Nancy said when John Feeney sang ‘Moonlight in Mayo’ those in the group shed many a tear. Nancy Kerruish’s husband was a man named McNicholas from Keelogues, Ballyvary, a relative of James McNicholas, Spencer Park, Castlebar

It was John Feeney’s wish to return to Mayo when he retired, and so he did. He died on Christmas Eve, 1967, and was buried in the Feeney family grave in Ballina.

I am not aware if the memory of John Feeney, a noble son of Mayo, is commemorated in any fashion in his native county.

For a man that brought so much happiness to the hearts and minds of thousands of Irish exiles in the U.S. he deserves to be remembered in some tangible fashion.