Jarir Al-Majar, formerly Gerry Mulholland, was a singer, musician, songwriter, poet, artist, peace activist, a man of principle and bravery and one of Galway’s most remarkable and beloved citizens. Majar was from a noted musical and sporting family. His father, Ned Mulholland had a fine tenor voice and won an All-Ireland football medal with Galway in 1938.
His parents owned the legendary Hilltop Hotel in Salthill, a welcome space for great music and musicians, where Gerry and his siblings honed their skills as performers and entertainers across the genres. Gerry had other early credits to his name: as a five-year-old he played Prince Charming in Scoil Íde’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in the Columban Hall, with his twin sister Breda equally compelling in the title role.
A lifetime of performing beckoned. Over the decades Gerry became synonymous with Galway.He was the heartbeat of the city, the quintessential original songwriter and singer who could command and beguile with his uplifting voice and assured musicianship. He seemed to play every venue and festival in the city; in recent years he was most associated with Tigh Chóili, Tigh Neachtain and The Crane, where he was a master of improv, changing lyrics of standards to suit mood and occasion, or producing from his impressive repertoire the great songs of the American and Irish songbooks, or treating his audiences to his own fine compositions including Galway Bay, Japanese Tokyo Skyline, the Rickshaw Song, the Green and Red of Mayo.
His imagination knew no boundaries, his music seemed limitless, Majar’s gifts could rouse the quietest of afternoons on the streets, the cafés, the favourite bars, where over innumerable coffees he would bring his audiences on a world tour of imagination and delight. From his earliest professional days Gerry had been in demand.
He had residencies out of town, in Ennis, Dublin, eventually Paris. His ageless and enduring appeal as a troubadour in the eternal spirit of Dylan and Donovan, John Martyn and Cat Stevens, won him fans and friendship wherever he travelled. Gerry had embraced the Baha’i faith; his deeply held convictions led him to the official adoption of the name Majar, Jarir Al-Majar and to travel, to learn – he became fluent in Arabic - to witness, and to act.
Over the decades his support of those who suffer injustice brought him to Egypt, Uganda, Palestine, Kurdistan, East Timor, and Tibet. As his sister Breda remarked in her moving funeral eulogy, he had strong opinions and was not afraid to air them. His humanity, empathy and compassion brought him to police custody in Bangkok, to postering Tibetan prayers in China, to standing with fellow peace activists at Shannon, protesting the presence of US soldiers and war planes in a neutral country.
In Kolkata, where he lived for several years his work for homeless children led him to found the education charity Hedge School International. Majar’s periodic visits to Galway as he raised funds for his Kolkata youth football team became legendary for their grace, persistence and efficacy.
Majar’s return from Kolkata to Galway, coincided with the city’s latest self-styled cultural exegis. For arrivals to the freshly branded Latin Quarter and West End Majar was an authentic cultural champion, at the piano, personifying a city of art and of conscience, of imagination and action.
His receipt of the John Arden Award in 2017 was well deserved and welcome. ‘Le croí ionraic’, with a sincere heart (as he often signed off a poem ) he never faltered: when the pandemic struck Majar entertained his neighbours in Palmyra Park and Raleigh Row, singing at a distance, raising the spirits, as always.
Majar’s farewell last Saturday, at O’Flaherty’s funeral home, was notable for the glorious gathering in the spring sunshine of the musicians of Galway, who serenaded him all afternoon, and a selection his greatest hits, performed as a finale by generations of his gifted Mulholland family.
We once again met ‘The Girl from Kilfenora’, looked back to that legendary crossing from Clare Island to Roonagh when Majar joined the Sawdoctors on board in writing The Green and Red of Mayo, travelled with Majar to the Japanese Tokoyo Skyline and returned to his own Galway Bay. Rest in Peace, dear Majar, friend and inspiration. Moladh le Dia, Alhamdullilah, Praise be to God.
