Brendan is still shining, singing and farming at 79

At 12 noon on a Tuesday when we called Brendan Shine he was on the road to Killarney from Athlone as he does every Tuesday during the summer, not as a tourist but to entertain, and at 79.5 years he says he still enjoys it.

Before leaving his farm in the Ballinasloe village of Taughmaconnell he tended to his herd of pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cattle before loading up his accordion, microphone, band suit etc. in the car for another night of singing and playing.

“I do it because I still love doing it,” says the veteran entertainer who holds the record for the third highest number of hits in the Irish Pop charts (30) after Elvis with 37 and Cliff with 43. Brendan is three ahead of The Beatles who had 27 followed by The Rolling Stones at 26.

“But all those had a lot more success all over the world than I could ever have even dreamed of and everyone remembers them but not Brendan Shine,” he roared with laughter.

He did make the lower regions of the UK Pop charts with Catch Me If You Can and one of his biggest fans is British TV presenter Dermot O’Leary who says he is a lifelong fan of the song.

When asked if it’s not a chore at this time in his life to be lugging a heavy accordion up on stages all over Ireland, and sometimes abroad, Brendan’s reply was an emphatic “not at all”.

“Sure, that’s all just part of the job and I’ve been doing it anyway since I started out in the Ceili bands back in the late 1950s when I was very young,” was his reply.

Recently he packed to capacity a concert in Tuam’s Ard Ri House Hotel where he topped the bill with several other artists, all of them younger than himself, and he jokingly remarked that night that at his age he should be at home in his bed!

“Tuam was great that night but while I’m really from Roscommon I’ve had a lot of Galway musicians in my various bands including Frankie Carroll from Tuam, Kevin Rohan from Athenry and Jack Mannion from Ballinasloe to name but three,” he added.

But even though his postal address is Ballinasloe Brendan is still a proud Roscommon man, especially when it comes to football and even if the Rossies are long gone from the All-Ireland series for this year he still has a family interest in another football All-Ireland.

“My grand-daughter Esme Halpin, Emily’s daughter, is on the Roscommon minor ladies football team in the All-Ireland final and so also is Paul Claffey’s granddaughter Isabell Kenny,” he proclaims with a grandparent’s pride.

While he keeps a great interest in the sport as well as the music Brendan has done so many recordings over the years that he has no plans for any new ones at present.

“I’ve done so many over the years that in any night’s one night’s playing I could never get through them all. Now some of the younger singers have revived my number 1 from 1976 All My Roads Lead Back to You so I’ll have to start putting that one back on our live show again,” he mused.

His biggest hit of all, Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down, a number one in 1979 spent a whopping 37 weeks in the charts just three places behind the biggest Irish rebel hit of all time The Men Behind the Wire by The Barleycorn earlier in the 1970s.

“That was back in the era when we would be playing six nights a week during the summertime, especially at the carnivals.

“But nowadays, apart from performing every Tuesday night at the INEC in Killarney during July and August I only do selected gigs and they are mostly concerts plus some overseas on the various Irish music holidays in the sun,” he concluded.