John ‘Twin’ has bequeathed a wonderful legacy

It was one of the best uses ever of an All-Ireland ticket.

The year was 1951, and John ‘Twin’ McNamara was restless. He had just finished three years of second-level school in Achill and wanted to make for England. He was a man with big dreams and felt trapped in school.

England was where his father, Anthony, worked and lived for most of the year in order to provide for his wife and children in Dooagh on Achill Island. It was a way of life for generations of Achill people, and a young John ‘Twin’ was drawn to it. A different country, earning money, escaping the penury of Achill Island life.

But his father was aghast. He was working in England and providing for his family so that his children would not have to follow his footsteps. He wanted them to go to school, onto third level and get a professional job that would keep them in Ireland, preferably keep them in Achill.

John and his twin brother Pat wanted to go picking potatoes in Scotland, aged 13. It was back-breaking work that had drawn young Achill Islanders for decades. Anthony was having none of it. To school they went.

Now, three years later, Anthony was fighting a similar battle with his twin sons. He must have wondered how they saw romanticism in emigrating to England. Did they not see how hard it was to leave your family for 11 months of the year to go to the UK?

But then children see the world differently to their parents. John ‘Twin’ saw it as an adventure and given he had never been to Dublin, never mind abroad, working on sites in London must have seemed so exotic. 

His father dangled another carrot – boarding school in Nathy’s of Ballaghaderreen. John dug his heels in. 

One last throw of the dice, then.

Mayo were All-Ireland champions and were preparing to defend their title.

“He saw education as the only escape for us from the emigrant ship. He said, ‘If you go back to school, I’ll send you the money to go the All-Ireland’. We couldn’t refuse that. We had never been to Dublin before,” John ‘Twin’ told the Irish Independent ahead of the 2021 All-Ireland final.

“It was just amazing. We had to keep our word and go back to school. And it changed the course of our lives. Pat became a dentist and I became a teacher... My father was a wise and wonderful man.” 

And while Anthony McNamara’s drive to allow his children to fulfil their potential and make successful careers for themselves was an inspired move, perhaps not even he could appreciate the impact John ‘Twin’ would have on his native Achill.

But for Anthony’s insistence and the dangling of a seat at the All-Ireland final, Achill would be culturally poorer right now.

John ‘Twin’ McNamara, who passed away aged 90 last month, has left an indelible impact on his beloved Achill. He greatly enriched the culture of Achill through his varied passions for traditional music, the Irish language, local history and the collection and preservation of songs, poetry and stories.

He was a champion of the Achill community across many decades and his passion for the culture of his home place was a lifelong pursuit. As recently as three years ago, he released an album of 18 songs called Oileán m’Aislingí (Island of my Dreams), which included some of his own compositions, some old Achill songs and some Achill poems to which he composed the music. All bar one of the songs, which were a mixture of Irish and English, were recorded between John Twin’s 84th and 86th birthdays.

He was a man in a hurry and full of conviction; he would campaign assidiously for what he believed in. He was frequently persistent but always the height of civility and good manners.

He was a key driver in the Achill Human Rights Committee, set up in the 1960s to campaign for balanced development for Achill, which was being left behind by central government and haemorrhaging many of its brightest and best to emigration, a reality John ‘Twin’ was all too familiar with.

He was a leading light in the renowned Dooagh Pipe Band and imparted on generations of school children in Dooagh NS the importance of tradition around them in terms of music, language and culture.

Indeed, it is hard to single out one particular area where John ‘Twin’ left the biggest impact as the breadth of his influence is felt so widely but in Scoil Acla, he has a legacy that anyone would be honoured to have.

Scoil Acla is a wonderful organisation, serving as a beacon for traditional music, language and the arts on Achill Island. It was originally established in 1910 by cultural giants of the era like Emily Weddall, Darrell Figgis, Eva O’Flaherty and ‘An Paorach’ (Francis Hugh Power). However, it went into abeyance for many decades.

John ‘Twin’ was one of the driving forces in getting it up and running again in 1985 and played a huge role in its continued success across the decades that followed. It celebrated its 40th year since its revival last summer.

The Scoil Acla week every summer, when aspiring traditional musicians, young and old, descend on Achill is one of the island’s busiest weeks of the year. It is a huge boon to the local economy, but it is so much more than that. It enriches Achill in a far more profound way than mere economics. In that week, Achill is a centre of musical and cultural greatness.

Watching the sessions on the beaches during the Scoil Acla week, as musicians of all ages from all over Ireland and beyond play together in a wonderful ensemble, is a joyful experience.

Seeing the smiles of children from Achill go to Scoil Acla classes in the winter to learn to master the tin whistle, banjo, flute, fiddle, accordion and much more and then see them shine in the summer is glorious.

A hard-working local committee make it happen but none of it would have been possible without their beloved shining light, John ‘Twin’ McNamara.

“John was a man of vision, generosity and spirit – a true Achill man whose love for our island, for our culture and for our people knew no bounds," they said in a heartfelt tribute. “He played a ról lárnach - a fundamental role in the re-establishment of Scoil Acla, helping to reignite that flame of creativity and community that has flourished ever since and is now the beating heart of our cultural life in Achill.”

Earlier this year, John ‘Twin’ was a fitting recipient of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Gradam na hÉigse Lifetime award for his efforts to revive Scoil Acla.

Declan Weir was among the last generation of children taught by John ‘Twin’ at Dooagh NS. Declan’s tribute to John ‘Twin’ sums up perfectly the layered impact of a great teacher, in every sense of the world.

“We’re lucky when we encounter someone in the world who impacts our life in a singular, positive way. I don’t know what the word is to describe someone who shapes you in a multi-faceted way, alters your perspective, changes how you value your history, your music, your traditions and heritage. A teacher who enriched your mind as well as your spirit. Educated you and your friends as well as generations of people you care about. Set you up for a life much richer than it would have been without their passion and effort. Whatever that word is, John McNamara was worthy of it. A great teacher and friend, we’re indebted to him.” 

Achill is a richer, better place because of John ‘Twin’ McNamara. For generations to come, his impact will be felt and we can thank the carrot his father offered in 1951.