Tom Doherty

Irish immigrants to America tended to follow well-worn paths laid down by relatives and neighbors who had already found work in the New World. However it came to be, Donegal people were drawn more often to Philadelphia than to New York City, where it has always been rare to hear the highlands or Scottish-inflected reels of Ireland’s northernmost county. Melodeon player Tom Doherty (1913-1998) from Mountcharles was one of the exceptions. He took an emigrant ship in 1948 and settled down in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Tom was already a well-practiced master at playing for dances, having spent some time doing so in Glasgow, and got offers to play in New York dancehalls. He knew the perils of that line of work too well, however, and preferred steady employment in a cold storage facility. Later in life, Tom would become a regular at the Monday night sessions at the Eagle Tavern and the annual Irish festivals at Snug Harbor, Staten Island. He made a solo recording, Take the Bull by the Horns, for the Green Linnet label and returned to Ireland in 1992 to perform with other American-based musicians at a Cork University traditional music festival from which emerged the live recording Dear Old Erin’s Isle.