‘Remembering the Seductive Soul of Barry White’ by Ivor Casey

IT has been 50 years since a petty thief suddenly decided to change his ways after listenting to Elvis Presley sing “It’s Now or Never” while in prison. This thief would go on to become one of the most cherished love singers of all time. His voice has often been compared to the feeling of melting caramel. A description of the lustful, lascivious and libidinous sounds of Barry White who became known as ‘the Guru of love’ for his lush bass and velvet voice. A silky smooth, sultry voice highlighted in such sexually charged songs as “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love Babe” and “Just The Way You Are”. Sexually flavoured and deliciously romantic numbers, which instinctively set the scene for dimmed lights, candles, slow undressing and body contact.

Born into a humble environment on 12 September 1944, in Galveston, Texas, Barry moved to Los Angeles where he spent the rest of his childhood with his brother and single mother. White explained that he was shocked by his unusually deep vocals, which emerged over night when he was still a teenager. From a young age he discovered an enthusiasm for music and began performing with a Baptist choir. However, as a teenager his musical interests took a back-seat to his life in petty crime and in 1961 he was sentenced to five months in prison for stealing tyres.

It was while in prison that Barry was once again inspired by the allure of music when he heard Elvis sing. The song was a calling and reached out to young Barry who suddenly realised that it was time for him to do something special with his life. Throughout the 1960’s White tried desperately to succeed in the music business and began writing love songs. He became a record producer for the group “Love Unlimited” but discovered the talent to sing his own songs with his mellifluous voice, which lead to his first solo hit in 1973, “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Babe”.

It was his butter smooth vocals which helped create the sensual charisma in his stimulating love songs “Let The Music Play” and “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything”. The soulful, suggestive and sensuous performer sold over 100 million records and had a career that spread further than three decades. He became a master of 1970’s disco and funk with the hits, “Love’s Theme” and “Never Gonna Give You Up” and his effortless but distinctive talent mesmerised millions of lovers across the world. It has been claimed the orgiastic sensations of his music helped influence the baby boom of the 1970s across America. His music’s overtly sexual connotations were extremely high pitched as the tantalising, thrusting and throbbing erotic power in both the lyrics and his vocals created a salacious, sensual and steamy sensation. Songs such as “It’s All About Love” and “Oh Me, Oh My, I’m Such A Lucky Guy”, with the deep breathing and gentle groans of satisfaction, were highly representative of passionate sexual intercourse in the most romantic, virtuous and celestial ways.

Barry’s career took a downfall in the 1980’s and his attempts at staging a comeback failed until his 1994 album release of “The Icon Is Love”, which became his next great hit. He enjoyed a return to concert performances and the charts throughout the 1990’s and appeared on the TV shows The Simpsons and Ally McBeal and performed a duet with Luciano Pavarotti. Unfortunately, too much touring took its toll and he was hospitalised several times for exhaustion. His health began to decline and he had severely high blood pressure. Between September 2002 and May 2003 he suffered from kidney failure and suffered a stroke which affected his voice and the left side of his body. He had been undergoing dialysis treatment and was awaiting a kidney transplant when he suddenly died at Cedars-Sinai medical centre in Los Angeles on 4 July 2003.

Barry White produced a genuine understanding of sensorial music by being a natural, instinctive and suave performer. His recordings have enjoyed great success to this day and while testosterone levels remain rampant and consenting couples with high sex drives desire seductive songs, he will continue to be a tremendous and timeless talent, never to be forgotten for those provocative, permeating and penetrating sounds.

– Ivor Casey

‘Leo and the Literary Legend’ by Ivor Casey

HE was once confronted on the street for bringing ‘that pornographer into Mullingar’. An attack on Joycean scholar and writer Leo Daly, who passed away recently at the age of 90.  He had experienced this attack simply for linking the story of the literary giant, James Joyce, to the Westmeath town, through his book, James Joyce and The Mullingar Connection. A book, which printed in 1975, both linked the work of a highly respected literary legend to a small rural town and brought the knowledge and works of Joyce to a wider audience.

A native of Mullingar, Leo Daly is one of Co. Westmeath’s great writers and historians. Spanning over 30 years his writings have included fiction and non-fiction publications, magazine features and essays, covering many aspects of Irish heritage, literature and local history, often relevant to places such as Mullingar and The Aran Islands.

Up until his passing, Leo resided in his home town of Mullingar, a resident of St. Clair’s Nursing Home and remained an active writer. It was here I met him a few months ago before going for lunch, as I set out to conduct an interview with him about his life and career. As we walked into the Bloomfield Hotel, not far from where he lived, I asked him of the influences on his writing career. He told me, ‘the major influence on my venture into writing was my interest in places such as Aran which had been successfully portrayed by Synge and others in the native language’. The Aran Islands clearly held a place in Leo’s heart as he would go on to write extensively on the history and people of this part of Ireland in both fiction and non-fiction terms, through a series of short stories and books, including Oileáin Árann and The Rock Garden.

Leo was educated at St. Marys College in Mullingar. He later studied drama writing under the British drama league and studied photography at the Agfa school of photo-journalism in Kent, England. He was one of the founding members of the Mullingar Little Theatre and has acted in and produced numerous plays, including Ghosts Strike Back which he wrote commemorating James Joyce and was performed at the Mullingar Arts Centre.

Leo has also produced pantomimes, has contributed photographs to American and Irish publications and has written drama criticisms for various newspapers, both regional and national. Having retired early from psychiatric nursing, Leo Daly followed a career as a writer, photojournalist and editor and has had his work aired on Radio Éireann and was a regular contributer to the famous Sunday Miscellany programme. As well as highlighting James Joyce’s relevance to Mullingar and surrounding areas in various publications, Leo has also told the story of the 7th Century Saint, Colmán of Lynn in the book The Life of  Colmán of Lynn.

Sitting down in the lounge of the Hotel we looked out across Lough Ennell, which fills the panoramic view from where we were seated. A lake with its own literary history, as it is noted as the influence for Jonathan Swift’s Gullivar’s Travels and the story about the people of Lilliput. I continued to ask Leo who he would consider his favourite writer. Leo explained, ‘my favourite writers are those who portray a visual concept rather than those who portray the metaphysical and historical interests of the writer’. Leo then added, ‘James Joyce is concerned with both in his writings and exploits a greater and broader canvas than others, thereby attracting a wider readership’.

Staying on the area of Joyce I asked of his attraction to Joyce’s work and what the inspiration was to produce such a unique book as James Joyce and The Mullingar Connection. ‘My main attraction to Joyce was his versatility, mainly a feature of his early works’ he stated. Leo continued to explain, ‘This feature of Joyce’s writing attracted me to Joyce, leading me to explore an area of Ireland already familiar to me and to an equal extent people and characters I was already familiar with. Thus the characters which Joyce introduced in his Epiphanies were those of the town I lived in’. In regard to the book itself, I was told, ‘Although the book was not well received at the time of its publication, especially by academics, it gained a readership and importance as source material’.

Despite Leo’s feeling that it was not well received, since it was published Leo and this particular book have gained a positive mention in the noted reference book Recent Research On Anglo Irish Writers by Richard J. Finneran. On asking him what was a highlight of his career, Leo smiled as he thought back to the time he was especially invited to give a reading of his paper, James Joyce in the Cloak of St. Patrick at the James Joyce Symposium in Zurich. It was also here, he told me, that he had the delight to meet and interview the American author Marilyn French who had written, The Book As World: James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Having connected a highly respected literary figure with a rural town, it can be found that Leo has contributed to bringing vibrancy and culture to the town of Mullingar. I asked if locals have taken note of this enough but Leo suggested that ‘Mullingar has still to give Joyce an honourable place in the town’s literary acclaim’. Once again we looked out across Lough Ennell and its enchanting illumination of the landscape. Looking beyond the lake, Leo directed me towards the hill of Uisneach, which was the setting for part of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, informing me of one of the many connections between Joyce and the midlands. I asked Leo why he thinks Joyce may have been drawn to the midlands and he suggested, ‘the midlands are the centre of Ireland and to him would have been the centre of the Universe’.

In more recent years, to add to his various talents and literary skills Leo Daly has produced a collection of poetry which was exhibited in St. Claire’s Nursing Home. With an emphasis on humour with witty and honourable descriptions of the staff at the home and descriptions of life as it then stood for the writer, his introductory collection of works were funny and insightful. They combined the natural desire to make you laugh and to make you think. Leo only began writing poetry recently and hopefully this work will eventually get a full publication, adding to his great body of literature.

As a passionate and devoted writer, Leo refused to be idle as he had recently completed writing a new play, which he had been working on for the past decade. Titled, The Jealous Wall, which was the name given to the mock ruin of a castle at Belvedere House in Mullingar, to divide rivalling brothers, this ‘Wall’ encompasses a true story which has now been dramatised by Leo. He described the inspiration for this new play, saying, ‘the story of “The Jealous Wall”, exploiting as it does the history of Lady Mary Rochfort’s conjugal imprisonment by her husband for almost thirty years, is an excellent portrayal of the “Gothic Grotesque”. The fact that the artefacts are still above ground and visible today lends a reality which is seldom encountered today’.

He told me he would be happy to have this drama performed on radio, not only because getting a stage produced play can be quite difficult, but because a lot of it may be better suited to radio. With this project being his most recent endeavour, I dared to ask him what was next after this and if he had any further aspirations and ideas on his mind. He responded, ‘Unfortunately no, time has overtaken my hope of further accomplishments. I can only hope for the best’. Nonetheless Leo has now behind him a fascinating body of work. It could be said that Leo is a writer not fully appreciated in his time but who will certainly go down as one of Ireland’s great literary legends.

– Ivor Casey

(Amended from article by Ivor Casey  which appeared in ‘The Westmeath Examiner’ and ‘The Sunday Independent’)

(Original publication of ‘Obituary of Leo Daly’ by Ivor Casey, as seen in the The Sunday Independent in August, 2010)

(Original publication of the final interview with Leo Daly by Ivor Casey, as seen in the The Westmeath Examiner in July, 2010)

‘The Midland’s Misplaced Momentous’ by Ivor Casey

WHILE the midlands has often become a side stepped region throughout Ireland, its history has included important developments in the name of The Quakers, who spear-headed production in Co. Offaly and Co. Westmeath. It was firstly in Moate, Co. Westmeath where the progression of this community began to flourish and see the earliest advancements in rural Ireland over three and a half centuries ago.

When George Fox founded ‘The Society Of Friends’ or ‘Quakers’ over 350 years ago, the Westmeath town of Moate soon became a centre-point for its followers. Fox had set up this new way of life in the wake of the Counter Reformation, having become disillusioned with religious life at the time. He felt churches had become swamped with traditions, rituals and power politics. The main objective of Quakerism was to take care of the poor and provide for widows and the fatherless. It was ensured that all members practised justice, equity and consolation. Quakers were tolerant in allowing people pursue, without criticism, whatever he or she was interested in.

Moate Castle, Moate, Co. Westmeath (Photo: Ivor Casey)

Moate was first introduced to this ‘Society Of Friends’ in 1658 by a Scottish soldier named William Edmundson, who had already made converts in Co. Antrim. Locals became intrigued by the Quaker lifestyle when Edmundson held a meeting in Ballykilroe and the first ‘meeting house’ was located at Toorphelim. Followers included John Clibborn who eventually had meetings transferred to his home, Moate Castle, which he came into possession of in 1656. It was the town of Moate where distant visitors, which included Americans, would come to, in search of information about Quakers in Ireland and nearby countries. From here, Quakerism extended to neighbouring counties such as Offaly. With the increasing numbers of friends, local, provincial and national meeting houses were erected in Ireland.

The Midlands Quakers were a most ambitious and productive people, establishing small industries and becoming heavily involved in farming and founded agricultural shows. Some of their factories included woollen and linen mills, brick and tile factories, a tannery and a felt making factory. They were also involved in banking, engineering and shipbuilding as well as producing jams, biscuits and tobacco and the famous Bewleys cafes. A major Quaker run factory was the Goodbody factory in Clara, Co. Offaly which was a flour mill and jute processor.

One particular resourceful Quaker was Dr. Edward Bewley (1806 – 1876), a Medical Doctor and Agriculturist who set up his practice in Moate in 1830. One area he was most keen on was the advancement of farming methods and he became a member of the Agricultural Society of Ireland. He set up a branch of this organisation in Moate which lead to the formation of ploughing matches, farming lectures, an agricultural college and an agricultural show. Dr. Bewley was elected President of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland in 1841. His benevolence could be seen during the famine as he was a founding member of the Moate Soup Kitchen. His son Sir Edmund Thomas Bewley (1837 – 1908) was born in Moate and later became a Professor of Law in Trinity College and a Supreme Court Judge.

Quaker Cemetary Gates, Moate, Co. Westmeath (Photo: Ivor Casey)

Quaker Cemetary Headstones, Moate, Co. Westmeath (Photo: Ivor Casey)

The Quakers are still very much in existence, with meeting houses all around the country. However, other than one active meeting house in Edenderry in Co. Offaly at present and none in Co. Westmeath, the midlands have lost a symbol of their prosperity. Today, the diminutive remains of a Quaker meeting house can be seen in the grounds of Moate Castle. It was ordered to be demolished in 1921 by the Quaker’s ‘Dublin Meeting’, to avoid misuse when the number of Quakers reduced in the area and the house became empty. There is also the remains of a Quaker graveyard on the same property but this is also gradually disintegrating, despite the best attempts of the local Historical Society to preserve it.

With its worsening condition through vandalism and the more natural overgrowth of weeds, briers and nettles, an important attribute of the rural Ireland’s aspirations has been left aside. While some midlanders today can finally celebrate the progression of sending one of its sons to lead the country, failure has supervened in preserving the memory of a noble people. With Moate Castle having recently been put up for sale, with the Quaker graveyard on the property, there is further uncertainty as to the future of this essential landmark of the Quaker’s memory in Moate.

Nonetheless, it is the legacy of ‘The Quakers’ which historians continue to bring forward and with the special anniversary year that is now, it is important that tribute is paid to the symbols of ambition and prosperity which once made Moate, and the midlands, a thriving region.

– Ivor Casey

(Amended from article by Ivor Casey which first appeared in the Westmeath Independent and Ireland’s Own)