I view Tom Sheehan’s Johnny Igoe, Spellbinder Remembered as more of a link to rather than an item lost to the enveloping past. This tale is full of remembrance, Ireland, poetry and a melancholy for those little things lost. There are certain persons in our lives (sadly, too few) who make you sad to think about what it will be like when they are gone, even as they live.
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Q: From what I observe, good oral storytellers, those who make you lean forward as they weave a yarn, are an endangered species. Yet there is nothing out of date about that ability. It is still desired, but has fallen off. In your estimation is there anything besides our reliance on devices (for communication and entertainment) that has contributed to our lack of good speakers?
Q: I keep casting about my mind for a better way to phrase this question, but have come up empty. Simply, is this a true story? Seems so to me. Even if it is fictionalized, it has great truth to it.
Tom’s response:
Too much attention elsewhere for many folks, Leila, and Johnny Igoe hangs in my mind as if it is his memorial, every word like an echo I grab on the run through his life again and again., so lucky to have known him so close for a long time, though I am a poor mechanic at this machine and often can’t remember what I want to look up, which is a stumbling block, there is so much work captured here someplace.
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literally stories 
Thank you, Tom. I was amazed when I considered that it would take almost three years’ worth of Sundays to rerun all your stories.
Leila
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Hi Leila,
Love the question about story-tellers.
The thing about a really good story teller and us mere mortals is timing. Not just comic timing but timing when revealing details or emphasising emotion. Few can do this well.
Weirdly, one of the shyest guys I ever knew was probably the best story-teller I’d ever heard.
Tom,
Love the answer and as a writer, your timing is perfection!
Thanks so much guys.
Hugh
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