ONE of Clonakilty’s most revered guitarists and producers has paid a fond tribute to his late friend Shay Healy who died on April 9th after battling Parkinson’s Disease for several years.

Bill Shanley – who was also a neighbour of Shay’s in Dublin – said that Shay had been down to the family bar in Clonakilty a good few times down through the years.

‘He was a good music man and he started his early career doing ballads and he came down to Clonakilty to sing these songs about 12 years ago and even wrote about the session in The Irish Independent where he was writing at the time,’ said Bill.

‘He was an amazing man and one of my first television appearances was with Noel Redding on Shay’s show Nighthawks back in 1990. I also worked with Shay recording and producing music too. We were good old mates really.’

Bill said Shay was a ‘very sociable man’ so he’s sure there will be some gathering to honour him once it is safe to do so.

‘Shay was a great host and hosted a lot of parties so there are lots of people who will want to mark his death.’

When Bill got married to his wife Joan in 2008, Shay attended the wedding and the following night  they had a music session to remember in Shanley’s Bar with other singers and musicians including Mary Black and Paul Harrington.

Bill said he misses playing music in Shanley’s but he said it will come back again.

He has recently completed an album remotely with David Knopfler –brother of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

Meanwhile, De Barra’s in Clonakilty also paid tribute to Shay on their Facebook page too who they said was a regular visitor to the town.