Paddy Tunney has been played on NTS shows including NTS Guide to…, with The Old Man Rocking The Cradle first played on 17 March 2022.

Paddy Tunney (1921 – 2002) was an Irish traditional singer, poet, writer, raconteur, lilter and songwriter. He was affectionately known as the Man of Songs. He collected many songs that have now become standards.

Paddy Tunney was born of Irish parents in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 28, 1921 (the year the Black and Tan war was ended). When he was one month old, his parents returned with him to County Donegal, Ireland. Although Paddy's father is from Donegal and his mother is from Fermanagh, the boundaries of the two families' farms met at the border between the two counties. Paddy lived in Donegal until he was five years old, at which ' time the family moved back to the old farmstead in County Fermanagh. There on the farm, in a spotless, white-washed house with a thatched roof, among the fields and close to the peat bogs, he grew up hearing the music and the songs that had been in his familv for generations. Paddy's own words tell of his family and its traditions:

"My mother, Mrs. Brigid Tunney, was a fine traditional singer. Though still alive, her voice is failing. She taught me to lilt and sing. Her maiden name was Gallagher, of Rusheen, Templecarron, Pettigo P. O., County Donegal. Her father, Michael Gallagher, was a fine singer and story teller. I remember him taking me on his knee and singing to me. Michael Gallagher was a tall, fair-haired man with a flowing red beard. He had a ruddy complexion and a proud, haughty bearing. He knew both Gaelic and English and had a fine repertoire of folk tales and classical ballads. He could make good 1 pot'een 1 (mountain dew) and knew all the journeymen, tinsmiths, tailors, cobblers, weavers, spinners, etc., who travelled around the country when he was a young man. He disliked small, dark men, unless they had the gift of song or poetry. Every year he went to the Station Island of Lough Derg (Diocese of Clogher), County Donegal, on pilgrimage, travelling barefoot all the way, as was the custom then. The memory of this poet-grandfather who died when I was four years old has haunted me for 37 years."

"My father, Patrick Tunney, is a quiet, tall, darkish man at 77. He knows when to speak and when to remain silent. His appearance now is statuesque and he has a quiet pride all his own. In his youth he was a good footballer and a beautiful reel dancer. Lilting, fiddling and melodeon playing were then the only ways of making music."

Paddy went to school in Derryhollow, County Fermanagh, and later to the technical school in Ballyshannon, Donegal. His first job was as a forester, working for the Ministry of Agriculture in Northern Ireland. That was in 1941, the same year in which he be~ame an active member of the Irish Republican Army. Paddy can tell many adventurous tales about this period of his life -- of giving extended order drill in dark fields at night and of teaching Irish history while sitting on a creel in a cold, deserted house, with only a candle for light.

In June, 1942, he took on the job of road-roller flagman and, at the same time, became a part of the counter-espionage force of the I.R.A. During the next year, he successfully transported 100 pounds weight of gelignite (a high explosive) sixty-four miles from County Gaven to Fermanagh on a bicycle. In 1943, while carrying 17 pounds of gelignite on a bus, with his bicycle strapped on top of the vehicle, he was stopped at the Beleek border. The gelignite was found, wrapped up in his overalls. Paddy immediately admitted responsibility for the gelignite and also claimed ownership of some "seditious ; documents" which were actually being carried by another man. He was arrested and removed to Derry Gaol. He was tried on May 1st in a Petty Sessions Court at Inniskillen and then put back in jail. Later that summer he was tried by an Orange Jury and found guilty of "possession of explosives with intent to en- danger life or damage property".

Paddy remained silent throughout the proceedings and was said by the court to be "mute of malice". He was sentenced to seven years penal servitude in H,M. Prison and was removed to the Belfast Gaol where he remained for four and one half years.

While he was in prison he worked in the bootshop, learned Irish (Gaelic) and wrote poetry. He participated in several hunger strikes, protesting against the treatment of political prisoners. For relax- ation, he says, he watched the rats running about in the prison yard and exchanged jigs and reels with the other prisoners by tapping on the water pipes in the cells. One August 12th he heard the skirl of pipes as a band of pipers passed up the street outside the prison. Paddy says that this was the only time he ever welcomed the sound of Orangemen.

Upon his release from prison he was sent to hospital and, from there, he went home to Fermanagh. After awhile he went to work as a health inspector in Dublin, taking his training at University College. Later he was transferred -- first to Donegal, then to Kerry, and finally to Letterkenny, Donegal, where he has remained.

In the Letterkenny Health Office, Paddy met the district nurse, Sheila Bradley, who was called, according to Paddy, "Omar" Bradley, due to her "rousing efficiency". After a romantic courtship in the Donegal hills (among the ancient battle sites and near the seat of the crowning of the Kings of Tyrconnel) they were married in 1950. They now have six children and live in a newly decorated house on the out- skirts of Letterkenny.

Paddy's job as health inspector includes inspection of housing, meat and food in general, -drugs, general hygiene and environmental hygiene. He covers a large area and recently helped give small-pox innoculations to sailors landing on the Donegal coast. He says that he especially enjoyed this task when it involved stopping a ship from Norway. He describes the sailors as they rowed ashore in an ancient type of high-bowed boat, dressed much as their famous ancestors must have been when, centuries ago, they constantly invaded Ireland. Paddy says, "I suppose this was the first time a Norse ship was ever prevented from landing on the Donegal coast!"