''Slick ''

One day last week one of my brothers said to me ,''by the way , Johnny O' Neill died .''
At the time I replied something like ,''oh , I'm sorry to hear that ..''
But , once again a door was opened in my mind and memories of growing up in Rathgar came in ....
When I lived on Rathgar Avenue between 1940 and 1966 our neighbours were a mixture of the remnants of the ''old acendency '' Church of Ireland families and young Catholic families , names such as Harwood , Lane , Lemon , De Lemere , were intersperced with , Kennedys, O'Neills , Dowlings etc.
The O'Neills lived directly across the road from ourselves .I didn't know Johnny very well as he was of an older group than even my older brothers but we got to know about him through his younger brother .Johnny was a drummer in a band . He knew many of the popular musicians of the time and moved in those circles . He was nicknamed ''Slick '' by his peers At the time 21st birthday parties were usually held in the homes and in our house Johnny was often unofficial master of ceremonies , provider of music both live and recorded , through his friends and contacts .
My mother had bought an upright piano , at one of the many auctions that were taking place in the neighbourhood at that time . I had never seen any member of the family playing except possibly Aunt Annabee , gently accompanying herself as she screeched out endless verses of ''The Lovely Lakes of Leitrim '' .But ''Slick's'' friends were different , they did not play the '' p..yawn..o '' , they played the ''pie..anna '', not the same at all . Honky-tonk , jazzy , blues , and the pianist would keep going as long as the Guiness kept flowing . Once we were told that EARL GILL'S FATHER was coming along with Johnny . WOW !( 'round about that time Earl Gill was the leader of one of the best dance-bands in Ireland , he played the trumpet , if ''Slick'' O'Neill was Rathgar's answer to Gene Krupa , Earl Gill was Ireland's answer to Harry James ).
The 21st parties usually happened on Saturday nights and went on all night . Our parents would have gone to bed . In hindsight it must have been very loud for such a quiet area , but I never heard of one complaint from our neighbours and I know if there had been our parents would have ended the party immediatly . Apart from Christmas that was the only time alcohol was in the house .
Early Sunday morning , having removed the comotose piano players from behind the setee , probably still holding a half -empty (half-full?) glass , we prepared to set out for morning mass in Mount Argus , where the Passionists had the earliest mass ...6 a.m., We made our way down past Garville , Harolds Cross , Clareville road , and eventually into the end seats of the beautiful church , slept through mass and slowly made our way home again.....another great night .
Sometime in the early sixties RTE had a popular TV soap called ''The Riordans'' , we heard that Johnny was to play a small speaking role in the show , a house -painter , one of his lines was some thing like :''Well missus , would you like me to paint a MURIEL on the wall of your bedroom ?''.