PAUL AMBROSE CROGHAN REMEMBERED IN A TWIST OF FATE

Last week I was contacted by a good friend Steve Coleman a man after my own heart with his habit of collecting all things weird and wonderful relating to Salford.

He told me that many years ago a friend of his who does house clearances, had to empty out a flat on Liverpool Road, Eccles, the deceased had no relatives and sadly all of his possessions were thrown into a skip, including several paintings done on board.

Steve took several of the paintings and had kept them for safety at his home, Stephen told me that the artist was well known as being a poet and a folk singer and the portrait of a steam train that he gave me was signed, Paul Croghan  and so I did a bit more research and was astounded at what i discovered.

Paul Ambrose Croghan to give him his full name was born in 1934 and died in 2003 and to say he lived a full life would be an understatement, he was described as being,

 "A very individual person in both physical appearance and personality, highly complex and somewhat misunderstood, endowed with a cutting edge acid wit, which did not always endear him to certain persons.

To hear his voice over the telephone, one would gain the impression of a suave and polished intellectual, yet his dishevelled appearance was totally the reverse - very old faded clothes, long unkempt hair, unshaven appearance and heavily nicotine stained teeth"

I have found out amongst his accomplishments he was a keen aviation expert, steam train enthusiast, a poet, a painter, but above all, a well known folk singer in the Manchester and local area who penned his own songs, he was a regular performer at The Black Lion and Star Inn, Salford, The White Lion in Swinton and The Duke of York, Eccles to name just a few, sometimes accompanied by his lady friend, Helen Rhodes, herself a very talented musician.

He does seem to be a very eccentric person, who it has to be said did upset a few people with his outspoken comments, drinking and life style, and yet somehow, had and kept a close circle of friends, sadly I never met him despite him living and drinking in Eccles for several years.

Local folk music stalwarts, Bob Marshall and Phil Cusack remember him from the Duke of York folk nights and both agree he was a very talented if not scatter brained artist, who would recite poems and the next week couldn't  remember them as he had thrown away his notes..

He died in 2003 and was cremated at Peel Green cemetery, a wake was held for him at The Duke of York pub and his ashes were spread in Sackville Gardens, Manchester.

He did have published a book of his poetry, posthumously in 2015, The Poetry Of Paul Ambrose Croghan which has a delicious little poem in it called, The Better Part of Eccles, a wickedly funny ditty about a conversation he overheard about a chap moving to Eccles...The better part, he said snobbishly.

If you knew Paul I would love to hear your memories of him, he does sound a proper character no doubt with faults as we all have, just sad that there is little to remind us of his life.