Annie Power

A London Irish Story as told to Anna Johnston

Speaking to Annie over Zoom, she told me all about her time singing in pubs around Islington and how she ended up winning the Fleadh Cheoil in 1976.

“I was born in London in 1950. My mother was from Cork and my father from Tipperary. They met in Cork where my father was studying medicine and after they married, they came to London, where we three children were all born. Summer holidays were spent in Ireland visiting grandparents in Cork and Limerick and staying with my aunts on Bere Island, West Cork. I loved it there and have happy memories of helping on the farm, fishing for mackerel and running wild with my cousins. In Cork city when staying with my Granny, I played street games with local kids, and raced to the corner shop for two-pence ice lollies or a lucky bag, singing Tom Dooley all the way home with my loot. When I was ten, my mother died aged only thirty-eight and we were all sent off to boarding schools. My sister Mary and I were sent to Scarborough Convent in Yorkshire, where one of my mum’s sisters was a nun, so from the age of nine to eighteen, I was raised by Irish nuns. My mother used to say I sang as soon as I woke up and danced if there was any music was playing. My father played piano and he and my mother sang their favourite Irish songs, my mother loving the Mountains of Mourne especially. At school, I sang the evening offices of Compline with the nuns as well as the usual hymns, and these had an influence on the traditional Irish songs I chose to sing later.  

I trained as a teacher in Birmingham, and it was there that I went to my first folk clubs and Irish music venues and started performing.

In 1974 I came to London to teach, and never left, apart from a couple of years teaching English in Greece.

I taught in many schools, mainly in Haringey, and went to Irish sessions and folk clubs. Most Sundays I would go to the lunchtime session in the Favourite Pub on Queensland Road, off the Holloway Road, to hear Jimmy Power, Paddy Malin, and other musicians. Jimmy would always ask me up to sing an old song. It was Jimmy and his wife who suggested I nip up the road to the local heats for the 1976 Fleadh Cheoil, and enter the singing competition. I didn’t even know what a Fleadh was, but off I went for a dare, and ended up some time later at the all England Fleadh Cheoil in Liverpool, where I came first in the traditional Irish singing in English. I was surprised and honoured, especially as the judge was the great Séamus Mac Mathuna, flute player, singer, and music collector. He gave me invaluable singing tips and encouragement.  

There was a great character in the Favourite called Gerry who played bodhran, did card tricks and sleight of hand magic, and the atmosphere was tremendous.

At the end of the session, we’d all pile into the same café on the Holloway Road for a roast dinner, or bacon and cabbage.

They were the best of times, and sadly, the pub was later demolished. One evening while singing in a session in the Elgin pub, Ladbroke Grove, a Scottish concertina player called Willie Haynes asked me to join a group, called Sugawn Folk at the time, later changed to Shegui, as they needed a singer and so I joined them for a couple of years. We would play in many pubs and venues, among them, Biddy Mulligan’s, The Brecknock, Cock Tavern, Victoria Stakes, and others, but the most notable was our Saturday nights at The Victoria on the Holloway Road, which was always packed with the Irish community around Islington, and beyond. Smoke filled and with many a lock-in till the early hours, they were nights full of music and song, and it felt like a huge Irish family in London. We never recorded any of it, and people often asked why we didn’t, but it was of its time, and for that time, and those people, so I have no regrets.  

Although born in England, I was always drawn towards the Irish community here, because they spoke like my own family, and reminded me of my mother and my childhood memories in Ireland. Now my daughter, also born in London, has moved to Dublin where she went to college, and where she now lives with her partner and baby. She also sings traditional Irish songs. My mother would smile to know that her legacy has gone full circle, and her granddaughter has returned to the homeland!”

I was in the ‘People to People - Irish in London’ videos, made by Ken Lynam and others for BBC 4 in the 1980s. It was the first account of the Irish experience of coming to London in the 40s and 50s, that was made by Irish filmmakers. The videos became part of the Irish Studies course at London Metropolitan University on the Holloway Road. I am singing in Part one, the first verse of a song written especially for the film by Sandra Kerr, and based on the interviews of those in the films.

This story is sponsored by Islington Council’s Irish Month- It’s jammed packed with events for everyone. Check it out here: licevents.ticketsolve.com/shows