But come ye back ...

when summer's in the meadow...

Ronan Tynan sings Danny Boy, beautifully.

That's too bad some tone-deaf Jewish lady with thin skin got her nose out of joint, and now Tynan's sitting out the playoffs. I wonder what kind of obstacles she's faced in her life, and if making complaints like this is how she plans to overcome them. Life is just easy like that for some people, I guess.

Born with lower limb disability that threatened to sideline him throughout his childhood, Tynan was still “as wild as a March hare” when he was a growing boy, riding horses and racing motorcycles. When he was twenty, his legs had to be amputated below the knee after an auto accident caused serious complications. Just weeks after the operation, he was climbing up the steps of his college dorm, and within a year, he was winning gold medals in the Paralympics as a multitalented athlete. Between 1981 and 1984, Tynan amassed eighteen gold medals and fourteen world records of which he still holds nine.

The determination instilled in Ronan by his parents, a diminutive couple with gigantic ambitions for their son, soon propelled him to conquer a whole new field. Tynan became the first disabled person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education. He later became a full-fledged medical doctor, specializing in orthopedic sports injuries, with a degree from prestigious Trinity College.

Ronan won both the John McCormack Cup for Tenor Voice and the BBC talent show Go For It less than one year after beginning the study of voice. The following year, he won the International Operatic Singing Competition in Maumarde, France. He made his operatic debut as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, and cut his teeth on the concert repertoire in performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. In 1998, Tynan joined Anthony Kearns and John McDermott (later Finbar Wright) as The Irish Tenors, an instant worldwide sensation. His autobiography Halfway Home was published in February of 2002.

Ronan is one of the most sought after motivational speakers in the U.S., presenting nearly 50 speeches annually for major international corporations and organizations.
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Ronan’s ability to simultaneously console and inspire is well-documented. In the wake of 9/11, the men and women of the New York Police Department and New York Fire Department and their families have been able to count on Ronan Tynan’s abiding concern and beautiful voice. Ronan has performed at benefits and memorial services for New York’s Finest and Bravest, and his singing softened the sorrow of many in the wake of the tragedy.
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The big Irishman has a special relationship with American audiences now, and he considers New York his home away from home. “New York is powerful and intense, and it begs you to take it on,” Tynan marvels. “If you do that and do it right, it will give you absolutely everything you want. The thing I love about New York and the states is that there are so many people who want you to do well. They will you to do well. They encourage you, and they rejoice in your success. That’s a great virtue. I think Americans are fantastic people, amazing,” he says. And while Tynan claims that “America has given me so much more than I’ll ever be able to give back,” those who have attended his concerts, basking in the stirring beauty of his music and rolling with laughter at his self-effacing humor, may well just have to disagree.