I knew Neil from the time, about forty years ago, that he began his column in the Belfast Telegraph. Our meetings recently have been infrequent but invariably welcome and full of crack. I didn't know how severe his illness was. I do, though, that but for it he would have been at the Ballyshannon Folk Festival, which he had attended since its inception; he died as this year's was drawing to its close. He will not soon be forgotten.