Recollections of Trips to Saint Raymond's Cemetery

KEVIN BURKE:
One cold, miserable day, I tried to find Michael Coleman's grave in St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. I was used to churchyards in Ireland, where you could cover the whole thing in about 10 minutes. But this place was huge, acres and acres, and I finally gave up. Just as I was leaving, though, I saw Paddy Killoran's headstone. Here I had come to find Coleman, and I found Killoran instead, which was an ironic twist, I thought.

PAUL KEATING ON THE FUNERAL OF ANDY MCGANN:
The funeral mass in the beautiful Upper East Side church of Our Lady of Good
Counsel was enhanced by the fiddlers playing in unison especially with Conway's rendering of the slow airs that touch the very heart and soul of the Irish
everywhere, The Coolin (Cúilfhionn) and Róisín Dubh.

The burial at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx was even more amazing as it
emphasized a theme that was with me all week up in East Durham.

Not only was East Durham a musical crossroads but it was the very circle of
life as well as we buried the late Joe Banjo Burke, welcomed the newly married
Michael Rooney and June McCormack (surely a match made in heaven) and shared
the news of Andy McGann’s death as a true community.

But as McGann’s cousin, Fr. Hugh Ronan sermonized at the mass on Monday, the
seed must die if life is to come from it, and looking at the quintet of young
fiddlers (Maeve Flanagan, Erin Loughran, Cleek Schrey, Patrick Mangan and
Colin Lindsey) who joined the veterans like Conway, John Daly from Chicago and Don
Meade throughout the day, it was clear that the seeds laid by Andy McGann
were bearing fruit.

Once McGann’s remains were respectfully saluted with a few tunes, a musical
meandering to the graves of fellow fiddlers Johnny Cronin from Kerry and Sligo’
s Michael Coleman was in order. It was both comical and symbolic as the search
aided by a cemetery database sent us on twists and turns in the sprawling
Throggs Neck Cemetery. The musicians played a few reels at my request over my own
father’s grave, ironically just a few rows from Andy’s final resting spot,
because my own household was where I first heard his music on an old LP that my
Dad had purchased and wore out with delight.

Those seeds and the Circle of Life are intertwined with the love of
traditional music and support the bonds that hold fast friends and followers of it
wherever they gather. It allows the Irish to be happy and sad at the same time,
which suits our character. Our heartfelt condolences to his wife Pat, sons Mark,
Kieran, Neal and daughter Megan on the loss of the truly fine gentleman, Andy
McGann.