Frank Patterson 20 years after the death of the great Irish tenor, Claire O’Mahoney talks to his family about the man they knew

Legendary Irish tenor Frank Patterson died 20 years ago, but his legacy remains for all to enjoy. Claire O’Mahoney talks to his family about the man, his career and the plans to mark his anniversary that had to be put on hold

When tenor Frank Patterson died in 2000 at the age of 61, he was at the height of his career. The Clonmel-born singer, considered the natural successor to Count John McCormack, performed for popes and presidents and was the first Irish artist to sell out Radio City Music Hall in New York, with his last album outselling Pavarotti in the US. A 20th anniversary commemoration concert, ‘Frank Patterson – Ireland’s Golden Tenor’ which had been scheduled to take place in late May in the National Concert Hall, was postponed due to COVID-19.

Produced by his nephew, cellist Gerald Peregrine; narrated by Frank’s brother-in-law, actor and broadcaster Des Keogh and with performances by tenor Anthony Kearns and the extended family, including violinist Oonagh Keogh and harpist Geraldine O’Doherty, it was set to celebrate his life and glittering career. It is hoped that the concert will take place next year instead, and marking the day of his anniversary, Nationwide will repeat a programme about the singer on June 10, travelling to Tipperary to meet friends and family who knew him well.

Growing up in Clonmel, Frank’s sister, Imelda Patterson, recalls a house filled with music. “Mammy and Daddy were always singing and learning choruses for the productions that would go on in our theatres here locally,” she says. “There was always that kind of atmosphere and there was just something about Frank – he was always a very enthusiastic and determined person.” The young tenor was involved in local choirs from a very young age, and spent any money he had on vinyl records of classical pieces. Imelda recollects being in her early teens and her brother sharing his musical passion with her. “He would spend the time, if it was a symphonic piece or anything like that, and he would explain to me what was happening, the different musical instruments and the type of feeling they were trying to convey.”

Imelda saw him perform many times over the years and has many great memories.“He had a beautiful way of delivering a song and when you’d go a concert of Frank’s, one of the nice things about it was that he always told a story about a song before he performed it. He knew his work really well and he knew his audience and they were able to connect with him, I think, because of the warmth of his personality,” she says.

Music for Middlebrows host, Des Keogh, had a very close relationship with Frank, both personally and professionally. He remembers the first time he heard Frank sing in Dublin five decades ago. “I was immediately just bowled over with his voice. I became and remained an ardent admirer. He had the most incredible, beautiful voice but then we became friends but particularly when we married sisters,” says Des, whose wife is the violinist Geraldine O’Grady. Frank married concert pianist Eily O’Grady, who died in 2015, and their son, Éanán, is a gifted violinist who has followed his parents into the music industry. The Patterson family moved to the United States in the early 1980s, where Frank found great success after having reached a career pinnacle in Ireland and Europe, including his long-running RTÉ programme, For Your Pleasure. The Patterson’s Bronxville house in rural New York became like a second home to Des and Geraldine. “Their generosity was incredible,” says Des. “We never had to worry about a roof over our heads when we went to America and Geraldine benefited from that because she was able to accept offers from orchestras and she did a great deal of concerts with Frank and indeed, so did I. Frank had the idea that I might be able to add, if you like, to his concerts providing comedy and telling the Irish jokes to a lot of his Irish-American audiences.”

The brothers-in-law also shared a love of sport – Frank was a keen golfer and also liked to watch baseball and tennis.According to Des, Frank was remarkable because despite his huge fame, “he remained the Frank Patterson from Clonmel, Co Tipperary. He was such a natural person and so unaffected by the great success that he had. He never even lost his Tipperary accent which was somewhat endearing and the audiences just adored him when he went out on stage. There was such a palpable sort of love between himself and the audiences.”

Gerald Peregrine, whose violinist mother, Sheila, is Eily and Geraldine’s sister, also remembers a very humble and family-orientated man, who could always throw a great party. “He had a great sense of humour as well as a really beautiful spirit and I just always remember his laugh and his encouragement and his warmth towards the younger members of the party,” he says.

His fanbase base is still strong – the planned NCH concert in May was two-thirds sold out as early as February – although Des Keogh sometimes thinks that Frank is as not well remembered as he might be. “Nobody for example has yet written a biography of Frank Patterson. He deserves to be remembered as well as McCormack,” he says. “I’d like to hear his recordings played more because he has such an incredibly legacy. He made a very lucrative career from singing the Irish songs in America, which he sang magnificently and he treated them with as much reverence as he would an aria by Mozart. But my fondest memories really of Frank as a singer are singing the classics.”