20 Facts About Tommy Makem

Thomas Makem was an Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller.

Tommy Makem was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

Tommy Makem played the long-necked 5-string banjo, tin whistle, low whistle, guitar, bodhran and bagpipes, and sang in a distinctive baritone.

Tommy Makem was sometimes known as "The Bard of Armagh" and "The Godfather of Irish Music".

Tommy Makem was born and raised in Keady, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland.

Tommy Makem's mother, Sarah Makem, was an important source of traditional Irish music, who was visited and recorded by, among others, Diane Guggenheim Hamilton, Jean Ritchie, Peter Kennedy and Sean O'Boyle.

Tommy Makem's father, Peter Makem, was a fiddler who played the bass drum in a local pipe band named "Oliver Plunkett", after a Roman Catholic martyr of the reign of Charles II of England.

Young Tommy Makem, from the age of 8, was a member of the St Patrick's church choir for 15 years where he sang Gregorian chant and motets.

Tommy Makem did not learn to read music but he made it in his "own way".

Tommy Makem started to work at 14 as a clerk in a garage and later he worked for a while as a barman at Mone's Bar, a local pub, and as a local correspondent for The Armagh Observer.

Tommy Makem emigrated to the United States in 1955, carrying his few possessions and a set of bagpipes.

The Clancys and Tommy Makem were signed to Columbia Records in 1961.

Tommy Makem left the group in 1969 to pursue a solo career.

Tommy Makem was a regular performer, often solo and often as part of Tommy Makem and Clancy, particularly in the late fall and holiday season.

Tommy Makem's career includes various other acting, video, composition, and writing credits.

Tommy Makem established the Tommy Makem International Festival of Song in South Armagh in 2000.

Tommy Makem died in Dover, New Hampshire on 1 August 2007, following a lengthy battle with lung cancer.

Tommy Makem continued to record and perform until close to the end.

Tommy Makem's performances were always full of his compositions, many of which became standards in the repertoire.

Tommy Makem received many awards and honours, including three honorary doctorates: one from the University of New Hampshire in 1998, one from the University of Limerick in 2001, and one from the University of Ulster in 2007; as well as the World Folk Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.