I just spoke to Packie (Manus Byrne) on the phone tonight and told him the sad news, which he had not heard. So this is really a joint message.

Packie was shocked and devastated to hear this news, as he had not even known that Mike was ill. He reminisced about some of his early memories of the Watersons, whom he first met in the mid or late 60s. During one festival they were all being put up in the same house. Not only the same house, but the same BED, as it turned out. For years afterwards Packie boasted about how he had "slept with the Watersons" and there were those who added up two and two and got five.

He shared many good times with them, as later we both did. We once spent a lovely Christmas up at the farm where Mike was in fine form. I remember him sitting at the end of a long long dinner table, which had a candle burning in the middle - about 6 or 7 feet away from him. After the meal when we were clearing up, Norma asked Mike to blow out the candle and, without moving any closer to it, he just took one deep breath and extinguished it in a single puff from where he sat. What lung power, I remember thinking. Another memory of that time is passing him on the stairs as he went up for a bath, clutching a copy of Beano. "Can't have a bath without me Beano," he grinned as he bounded away. This is the Mike that Packie and I remember. Singing, laughing, not walking but bounding.

Packie also recalled fond thoughts of Lally at this sad time, and now they are both gone. If any of the family are reading this, please know that our thoughts are with you, and how very, very sorry Packie was when I - no less sorrowfully - broke the news. Rest in peace, Mike.

Packie & Bonnie