Johnny feels ‘lucky’ to have found love again

Music with Eddie Rowley

LIFE has turned around for Irish folk legend Johnny McEvoy since the death of his beloved wife five years ago.

The ‘Muirsheen Durkin’ singer, who plays Dublin’s National Concert Hall on February 19, was determined to pick up the pieces and move on after losing his life-long partner Odette.

And as Johnny got back into his singing career, life took another unexpected turn when he found love again with a long-time friend, Mary Kenny from Cork.

Johnny (73) tells me: “After Odette died, I had to pull my socks up and start looking after myself. I succeeded in doing that. Life goes on. I couldn’t just sit watching Netflix every night because you’d just deteriorate and I was determined not to let that happen. I consider myself very lucky to have found another partner in life. It came about accidentally as I wasn’t looking for anybody and Mary wasn’t looking for anybody.

“We’ve known each other for over 50 years, so it was easy. It was renewing an old acquaintance because we hadn’t seen each other for most of those years. We met accidentally at a concert one night and it grew from that.”

Mary had been a widow for 10 years, so both understood the pain of each other’s loss and have been mutually sup- portive. However, the couple, who have grown-up children, don’t spend all their time together as Mary still lives in Cork and Johnny in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

On the career front, McEvoy is also set to record an album and TV programme this summer with the RTE Concert Orchestra. “If you told me back in October 1966, when ‘Muirsheen Durkin’ went to number one in the Irish charts, that I would be doing this in 2019, I’d say you were mad,” he laughs.