Song from home provides the perfect tribute to dad

It is just under a year ago since Billy Henderson passed away. Originally from Dumfries in Scotland but long domiciled in Knocknacarra, he was best known around Galway for his business – Henderson Fire and Safety Ltd – which has provided fire extinguishers and other fire safety products to customers in Ireland for more than 20 years.

But to his family, Billy is better remembered for his love and encouragement of music, and on September 9 – to mark his first birthday since passing away – two of Billy’s children released a tribute to their dad in the form of the traditional Scottish folksong, Loch Lomond.

It was one of the songs Aileen and Sean Henderson performed at Billy’s funeral. Alongside a host of talented musical friends, the siblings crafted a celebratory tracklist that paid service to the breadth of their father’s passion.

“It never really crossed my mind who was going to do the music for it other than us,” Aileen says.

“I felt like it was our job, and it would give him the best send-off because he loved showing us off and music has always been such a massive part of our whole family.”

Aileen and Sean’s cousin recorded the music performed at the service, and once the pair listened back to the audio, they felt a proper recording would work well as a tribute. Loch Lomond was captured with producer Dave Skelton and arranged to stay faithful to the live performance in the church.

“There was essentially a rock concert in the church with a full band,” Sean says.

“One of the funnier parts, not that it’s a funny story overall, is that he went out to Dire Straits’ Walk of Life. There were guys looking around being like, ‘Are we allowed to dance a bit?’ It went to people being like oh, this is good craic. And that was one of the prouder parts of it. It was a cool funeral.”

The music had to be brought together within the space of a couple of days, but the people around the family made the process easier. Billy was a fan of powerful songs that build up in intensity, meaning they had a roadmap for their arrangements.

“We’re lucky enough that a lot of our friends are really good musicians, so I didn’t have to worry about that side of things,” Aileen says.

Pictured: Happier times...Aileen Henderson, Liz Gantly, Mark Henderson, the late Billy Henderson and Sean Henderson.