My mission on this most recent trip to Ireland (January, 2020) was to see if I could find where Paddy Quill had ended up in the U.S. After many inquiries I'd learned that Paddy was the one who had sung Smiling Aghadoe on the tape that I'd received in 1983, the recording that had started this whole quest. He had emigrated to the U.S. at some point in the late 1970s. My informant, Danny Maidhcí Ó Súilleabháin, didn't know any specifics about when or how or to where he emigrated. But he knew others who knew him. Maybe we could find out. If I could discover where he'd ended up, I might be able to find a trace of the song here in the States.
Danny Mikey took me to visit three of Paddy's old acquaintances in the hills around Ballyvourney, Co. Cork. One was not at home. Dead end. Another we met on the little one-lane hill road as he was herding his cattle from one pasture to another. Sure, he remembered Paddy from long ago, what? forty years, was it? No, more like forty-five or fifty years! Paddy was a mountainy bachelor, kept to himself mostly. No, didn't remember what year he left or where he went—somewhere in America. We waited for the bullocks to pass then made our way to another old house up in the hills.
The old man, still in his “Wellies”, his Wellington boots, having just finished some drainage ditch work, invited us in and his wife wet the tea for us. They chatted about the old days for a while then Danny asked about Paddy. Oh, sure, they remembered him. Went to America, didn't he? Long time ago. He had a sister moved up to Mayo or maybe it was Galway. No don't really remember anything else about him.
So that was it. It seemed to be nothing but dead ends. Danny also supplied some census data about Paddy's parents and siblings—interesting, but nothing to help with my quest. So that seemed to be the end of my quest for more information about the song, Smiling Aghadoe. I went on over the mountains to Killarney to thank several people who had helped in previous years and to let them know it was now recorded and on YouTube. Here’s the link.
I checked in at the hostel and mentioned that I was doing research on Smiling Aghadoe. (The power of networking is so amazing in Ireland that I've learned to mention what I'm after to anyone and everyone.) “Oh,” says the desk clerk, “My grandmother sang that song!” I was floored. Here I had been searching for years and had contacted all the well-known traditional singers in the area and they all said it was unknown or they remembered it being sung but not in the last few decades. And here was someone, a random stranger, saying that his grandmother used to sing it. She was long gone, of course, but it made me realize that traditional songs are sung outside the community of traditional singers, that not all singers are connected to that community. And that reality, of course, broadens the search area and also makes the search more difficult.
But wait. That's not all! The guy in the office behind the desk at the hostel came out and said, “Smiling Aghadoe? I think my father has mentioned that song.” After checking to be sure it was the right song (there is a well-known song called “Aghadoe, Aghadoe”) he said he would have more information for me later. Next day he told me that his father knew someone who knew someone who sang that song and lived in New York! After several phone calls I got the contact information for John Daly in Yonkers, New York, who is said to know Smiling Aghadoe!
Although it was from a totally unexpected source and for a totally different person, I had finally found a trace—well more than a trace, it turns out—of Smiling Aghadoe in America! And so there will be one more installment of this story.