The late Billy Browne – a heartfelt tribute

There is a Light That Never Goers Out, The song by the Smiths came to mind as I sat down to remember Billy Browne who passed away last week, and in particular the lines; ‘Take me out tonight where there's music and there's people and they're young and alive’ . 

I joined Aontas Ogra in February 1975, just a few weeks after my fifteenth birthday; the same week I joined the junior branch of the local St Vincent de Paul where we would visit patients in St Vincent’s Hospital each Sunday morning. Friday night was Club Night in the Aontas Ogra hall on St John’s Lane, now the site of the Athy Scouts den. The 1970’s were a grim and dreary time in Ireland, an era of huge unemployment and emigration, strikes, power cuts , soaring oil prices and an on-going war in the North of Ireland. A time when corporal punishment was still practiced by teachers who should have known better and when the social needs of the youth of Ireland were mostly neglected by Church and State. 

All that was forgotten when we walked down the steps into the club house on a Friday night. Billy Browne welcomed us with open arms to the club where there was ‘music and people and they were young and alive’; so for a few hours it was a haven from home and the outside world, a place where we could be ourselves or whoever we wanted to be. Billy treated us like adults, preferring to resolve issues by discussion and compromise, empowering the individual rather than oppressing, encouraging us to take part in club activities, to debate issues and to foster friendships that have lasted over half a century. 

He was a man before his time, always wanting to share his love of music, cooking, performance, engagement and social involvement. Unbeknown to us, we were being prepared for the big world we would soon have to enter; you grew up quickly in those times. Yes there were discos, céilís and debates as well as summer morning trips across the midlands in Fitzy’s cream and red Bedford bus through Tullamore, and Moate and Loughrea and Ballinasloe to the Ben Lettery youth hostel on the side of a hill in Connemara for the annual club holiday. 

Billy organised all of these events with the help of some senior club members, a position we aspired to, and in time achieved. He brought us on our first trip to the National Stadium in Dublin to see the wonderful Alan Stivell and some time later to see Horslips perform at the same venue, he organised music appreciation nights, introducing us to Sean O’Riada’s Mise Eire, Vivaldi, Black Sabbath and we played Neil Young’s iconic Harvest album so often that we wore a hole in it. 

By his actions, he taught us about responsibility and integrity and fairness. He gave more than he ever expected back. For more than sixty years Billy Browne made sure that ‘The Light Never Went Out.’ Shine on, shine on, adieu!