By Patrick Nevin
Music has a way of finding the people it belongs to, and for Jerry O’Connor, it found him when he was just eight years old. In 1979, he picked up his very first tin whistle, inspired by his brother, who was taking lessons in school. At home, the air was always filled with sound. His father adored the great Irish tenor John McCormack, while Jerry himself was raised on cassette tapes of 1950s and ’60s rock and roll. Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison became his childhood heroes, their voices shaping the soundtrack of his early life.
By sixteen, Jerry’s musical imagination had a new idol, Hank Marvin, the frontman of The Shadows and Cliff Richard’s legendary guitarist. Marvin’s shimmering guitar tones left a mark on him that never faded. “I wanted to play guitar like Hank Marvin, with the style of Buddy Holly, and the voice of Roy Orbison,” Jerry recalls with pride.
In the summer of 1996, those influences came together in his song Little Missie, a demo he recorded in a small studio in Enniscorthy. It was a project born from pure love of music, layering acoustic, bass, and electric guitar tracks, along with three vocal takes, all done within just three years of learning his first note. “It was a beautiful moment,” he says. “I’m still proud of that song. I’d love more people to hear it.”
Jerry’s path was never straightforward. His parents had only settled six weeks before he was born, and he left school just before turning seventeen. But his hunger to learn never left him. At 21, he returned to education, completing his Leaving Certificate and continuing to study, on and off, for the next two decades. He’s still researching today, at 53, with a deep passion for history and poetry; a love that began when he was 14 under the
guidance of his teacher, the well-known Ollie Grace.
When Jerry first began performing, nerves often got the better of him. Other musicians didn’t understand the music he wanted to play, so he taught himself, one note at a time. “Every time I play, I learn something new,” he says. Over the years, that dedication resulted in an astonishing 2,000 original recordings, a lifetime’s worth of creativity stretching back to the cassette era.
In the 1990s, it was rare to see a Traveller artist performing original music, but Jerry never shied away from expressing who he was. He sang his own songs on stage and on Southeast Radio in 1993, always earning warm applause even if mainstream recognition never followed. Prejudice made playing in pubs difficult, many weren’t welcoming to Traveller musicians, so Jerry focused on venues where the music, not the setting, took centre stage.
Today, Jerry stands at a remarkable point in his journey, working on unfinished pieces and celebrating the recognition he long deserved. When he received The Old Traveller Artist Award, launched during Traveller Pride Week by Bealtaine Festival and Pavee Point, it felt like a circle closing. The award honours older Traveller artists who have kept creativity alive within their communities.“I’m glad I stuck with it,” Jerry says. “Many times I felt like giving up, but music becomes a part of you. You can’t just walk away from it.” And now, as new faces join the Traveller arts scene each year, Jerry hopes to offer them the same encouragement that once kept him going, a melody that never fades.
