IRELAND’S “oldest busker” was playing sweet music today after receiving his first vaccine dose against COVID-19.
Eighty-four year old Tom McNamara, who described himself as the “oldest busker in town”, has played his button accordion on the streets of his native Limerick city, throughout the pandemic, and for the past 40 years.
Despite the lockdown, Tom from Wolfe Tone Street, said he has played everyday around the city to keep his mental health in-check and give a boost to others passing by, “who might be having a bad day”.
“I do it for me and I do it for Limerick. Despite the pandemic, I come out everyday and I say to the pandemic, ‘take a back seat’ and I keep on busking,” said Tom.
“The pandemic has affected the busking, because people are not out as much, and so you I am are here on my own a lot. We’re living in a funny world today, but I always look forward, if you don’t look forward, you’re forever going backwards”.
“I was reading in the newspaper that there is an awful lot of people going to the doctor for tablets for depression over the pandemic, but I’ve learned that getting out everyday helps me, even though I have pains in my legs, I think it’s arthritis.”
The optimistic octogenarian, adheres to the public health guidelines, busking within 5km from his home, and received his first vaccine dose last week.
“Busking is essential to me, and I’m still going strong. It helps clear my head, everyone of us can get effected by it, it doesn’t matter who we are, we can be a professor, a busker, anyone, we are all human, and we can all feel the impact of something like this.”
A former member of the defense forces, Tom said, despite all the pandemic has thrown at him, his love of busking won’t be defeated: “I’ve been playing since I was a child, it’s my life, and I’ll carry on regardless — the pandemonium of the pandemic can move off.”
