Leo Connolly

“Leo Connolly” at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery

Peter Mayne (b. 1952)
Leo Connoll
Oil on paper

Leo Connolly (born in Jarrow, 1929) was a carpenter at Hawthorn Leslies in Hebburn for 28 years. But he was also a talented singer of Irish ballads.

His introduction to public singing was at an age of about four, when he stood on a pub table, wearing green velvet trousers and a green bow tie, and sang “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” to a packed room. The location for this, one of Leo’s earliest memories, may have been the bar of the Commercial pub, which was mainly frequented by workers from the nearby Mercantile Dry Dock, and where Leo’s mam was the landlady.

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