BANDON singer and musician Paddy Downey has proven that when it comes to releasing music age is certainly no barrier.

At the tender age of 84, Paddy recently released his debut single ‘Old Friends’ after much persuading from his son James, who is one half of local popular band The Shruggs.

From playing with The Weavers in the late 60s to For Folk’s Sake in the 80s, Paddy has a career spanning over 60 years and played support to bands such as The Dubliners and The Johnsons back in the day.

Speaking to The Southern Star, a delighted Paddy said it is fantastic to have released ‘Old Friends’, which was written by Kees Hendrickx, also of The Shruggs.

‘James really was the one who pushed me and we recorded it nearly a year and a half ago but it took me a bit of time to get it released,’ said Paddy.

Accompanying the song too is a great little video showing Paddy walking around Bandon meeting his friends including Cork’s favourite Baldy Barber Michael Moriarity and remembering his dear friends who he has lost down through the years.

‘The video was shot by father and son team Dan and Fiachra Holland while the song was mixed of Adam Whittaker, who has worked with artists like Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson.

The track was mastered by Peter Maher of Peaky Blinders fame.’

Paddy’s family have steep musical roots as his mum was the organist at St Patrick’s Church for nearly 40 years and he started playing with folk groups back in the 60s around the time of the ballad boom.

However, this is the first time that he has released  a single of his own and he admits life got in the way as he got married, raised a family and also worked as a rep for a few shirt manufacturers.

The launch of his debut single along with the screening of the video will take in the Kilmichael Bar in Bandon on Friday July 10th and Paddy isn’t ruling out a couple of more gigs around West Cork to celebrate his single release.

His son, James said there has been a huge response to the song and Paddy has had former work colleagues reaching out to him after hearing the single.

‘It’s fantastic too that an 84 year old is mixing in the same circles as the likes of Amy Winehouse. It took almost three years to get him to move on the song which was already recorded and it wasn’t easy to persuade him but we got there in the end. What I loved about the video was that people got the central concept very fast. It’s also a celebration of his musical career,’ said James.

See ‘The Shruggs Band Cork’ on Facebook to watch the ‘Old Friends’ video.