The man on the phone said he was Johnny Duhan. I wouldn’t have believed it but for the voice. Even as he talked, I was transported back to the 1980s, the song on the radio, a DJ talking about this guy from Limerick, and a singing voice like a plea, full of vulnerability, as if imparting something from deep within, yearning for love of one sort or another, repelling pain.
Johnny Duhan died last Tuesday in a drowning accident off the coast of Galway . He was 74 and many tributes have since been paid to his songwriting feats. He was, as pointed out by his fellow musician Fiachna O Brainan, “a master wordsmith”.
He was best known for his song ‘The Voyage’, recorded by Christy Moore and now a staple at every second wedding in the country and beyond. Back in the 80s, when music held an elevated position in this teenager’s life, Duhan’s songs washed across the Irish musical landscape like a cool, strange breeze. His album Current Affairs got airplay, particularly the song 'El Salvador'.
There was something about him that was different, an Irish Troubadour singing from a place not yet discovered. His musical life began in the rock band Granny’s Intentions which achieved some moderate success locally, in Dublin and finally in London. He left the band by his mid-20s to concentrate on a solo career.
He wouldn’t have made a good rock star but would have been at home among poets. Like many musicians and songwriters whose talent doesn’t chime with the marketplace, he go.