Mary met with the song collectors in early 2016 after a recommendation to find her and ask to hear her wealth of traditional songs. We met Molly with her husband, Christie Navan, at their home in County Westmeath and she shared a wide range of songs, including some very old ballads, such as Willy Reilly. This is one of the songs she learnt from her grandma as a young girl. She remembers how her grandma would read her the stories of the songs from the old ballad sheets and she would learn many of the songs that way. She also remembers hearing her mother and uncles sing and her Uncle, Paddy McDonald, teaching her Here’s A Health and Wealth (Who’s That Knocking At My Bedroom Window).
Mary sings her songs with a unique decoration which she learnt from her mother. She spoke about how the way people sing depends on where they are from in the country. She thinks that she might have picked this signature style up from her mother, who was a Galway woman. Throughout her life, Mary remembers singing with her sisters Molly and Biddy, and today she will often sing the old songs to herself whenever they come to her mind.
