Battle of the bars to honour late Clare character

LISCANNOR is set to host a singing competition this weekend between teams from four pubs all in honour of a great local entertainer.

This battle of the bars will take place on April 23 in memory of Michael “Loxy” Thynne with four local pubs putting together teams of patrons to rehearse a handful of songs and compete for the aptly-named Loxy Cup.

Thynne passed away in 2013, but is fondly remembered locally for his love of singing, regarding himself as the finest singer in Europe with an extensive repertoire of three or four songs, according to his son Michael.

Michael said: “Putting it mildly, my dad was fond of a sweet sherry or two. He was called Loxy because of his facial hair, and he would spend his days going between the four public houses, until he had reached his limit.

“He was, without doubt, the worst singer in North Clare. The only person who didn’t know this was Loxy.”

The Loxy Cup was planned to take place soon after Loxy’s passing, but with local tragedies and the emergence of Covid-19, the event was postponed several times before being resurrected this year on his ninth anniversary, to be repeated every year from now on.

Michael highlighted that this will be the first official iteration of the event, with the team from local pub Egan’s having won several years ago with no shortage of good-natured, deliberate controversy.

It is planned that whichever pub wins this year’s Loxy Cup will host another in November, at which point Michael hopes to challenge neighbouring pubs in Doonbeg, Ennistymon, Lahinch, Doolin and Kilfenora to send teams and test their vocals against the Liscannor talent.

Michael continued: “Right now, we have Vaughan’s, Egan’s, Tommy’s and McHugh’s putting teams together with three people to a team, all either local or regular visitors to the village.

“The singing will be a capella, and you can almost predict which songs each team is going to use at this point, it’s almost always the same few songs!”

Michael also shared plans for the future, such as dedicating the final weekend of April to an expanded version of the competition that will include a solo competition as well as the team format.

Loxy was known to be a good friend of Finbar Furey, who was originally slated to act as a judge last year, but due to restrictions and his current touring a new line-up has been organised instead.

The competition will be presided over now by other local musicians such as Patsy McCoy and Mick Lacey at 9:30pm at Egan’s, to be recorded by Singing Sessions Videos and with trophies put aside for both participants and winners.