Philip McDermott

Philip McDermott: was born in 1932 in the house where he lives now in Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh.  His father was a farm labourer and Philip was a general labourer in quarries and on the roads.  His mother sang a few songs and, in her day, she was asked out to friends' houses for sing-song evenings, when there was also fiddle and accordeon music and dances like the old-time waltz.

Philip learned The Reaping of the Rushes Green from his mother.  "My mother." he said, "was a notable singer of that one ...  Any party that was about here, they used to get her up into the houses to sing this song.  People tells me that I can't sing it nearly the way she could sing it."