The funeral for Brien Halpin was on Monday, 5 December For the majority who read this, the name means nothing but that does not lessen the importance of acknowledgement. Brien was a quiet part of us in the s, from about to It came out in the speeches that his interest in folk music was sparked on an engineering placement in England in the late s he graduated BE Electrical from Canterbury and naturally he had to change his image.
He returned with a head full of British trad. He joined the club, then at the Arts Centre, sang lustily in chorus sessions and occasionally as a soloist: One member last week recollected:.
Interestingly enough we had the same wine a year apart and gave it a similar grading each time! But he is probably better remembered for his enthusiasm in Mummers Plays, which Peter Morgan organised for the club over the same period Brien was a member:.
Brien is the one in the middle wearing a blue Council rubbish bag. By this time mid s he had married Carol and become a stepfather. Soon they added two of their own and this busyness plus a developing career took him out of the club and to new interests.
All through his alter egos as a medalled veteran table tennis player at national and Australian competitions, local harriers and personal researcher of anything that took his fancy, shone his devotion to Carol, the kids, grandchildren and young cousins.
