How does it go? "It seems like only yesterday...."
Paddie claimed I greeted her with the opening line.. "Stick with me Paddie and I'll make a star out of you". Not that I had a lot to do with it. The sudden television exposure over the first couple of years did that. Then there were the radio shows, the concert tours and the endless appearances at folk clubs across Scotland England & Ireland, trips to the Irish Fleadhs and a host of singing occasions around Edinburgh at endless parties.

I well remember the occasion when we decided to hire the Usher hall in Edinburgh for a solo concert and the long two week wait to see how the ticket sales were going; the arriving at the front of the theatre on the big night and having to fight our way through to the green room; the street outside blocked and near pandemonium inside the vast hall as 2400 people found their seats. On that evening we over-ran with encore after encore and nobody was happier than wee Paddie.

At a midnight concert in the Grafton Cinema in Dublin (now long gone) the crowd were boisterous and there was a lot of noise despite the fact that the house lights had dimmed. As one late comer staggered down the ailse dropping several bottles of guinness on the way, we could hear Ronnie Drew in the stalls yelling,
" I can't stand a fella who can't hold his porter, especially when its in a bag".
Quietly Paddie slipped on to the stage and, unaccompanied and unannounced sang 'She moved through the Fair'. Instantly the crowd settled and we could begin.

She never got ruffled, never lost her cool and never dropped a note. Not the greatest banjo player in the world, she made up for it with her ability to still an audience and bring a tear to the eye with the simplist of lyrics and melodies. She had a wonderful memory for arrangements which made life very easy when preparing for the television series, when we might be expected to present eight or nine songs to a director who would then select three at most.
She was a pleasure to work with and a friend to the end. She will be sadly missed.

Bill Smith