Cinema goers and television viewers who viewed "Hear My Song" starring Ned Beatty in the role of Josef Locke, one of the greatest Irish singers of the mid 20th century, are delighted that a statue of Locke was unveiled in his native city, Derry, on March 22.

Older readers who remember hearing the singer during the height of his career are happy that he is now remembered in a sculpture befitting his stature as the leading male vocalist on the concert and variety stage during the 1940s and 1950s. As a child he sang in local churches. As his fame spread and his voice matured, he was encouraged by the great John McCormack to further his career in England. There the impresario and band-leader Jack Hylton was responsible for shortening his name from Joseph McLaughlin to the now familiar Josef Locke.

It is now somewhat difficult to understand the grueling life of a celebrity on the variety circuit in the pre-TV era. Suffice it to say that Locke topped the bill for 19 consecutive summer seasons at the seaside resort of Blackpool, and toured extensively during the rest of the year.

His stage presence was that of a happy troubadour, and his voice rang with happiness.

His first record, made in 1947, was "Santa Lucia", followed by "Come back to Sorrento". Arguably his most popularly recording was "Hear my song, Violetta".

He started life as the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, in the Bogside area of Derry, on March 23 1917, and died on October 15 1999.

The Bogside is a name known wide and far as a result of the recent "Troubles" in the Six Counties of Ireland that are still under English rule eighty-nine years after the 1916 Declaration of the Republic of Ireland. In more recent years, the Bogside Artists, a group of locally talented people, have brought it renown in art circles world-wide.

Another Derry singer, Brendan O'Dowda, was a recording star whose voice reached untold millions throughout the world.

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