Willie Savage

Willie Savage (centre), his son Willie Savage (left) and Jack Donnan (right)

William Savage was the best-known fiddler in East Down. He was born in 1881, and reared by his grandparents at Ballyminstra, Killinchy. When he was nine years old his grandparents took him to the Hiring Fair in Comber, where he was hired out to a local farmer, Hugh McCann of Lisbane. After working on various farms he eventually came to work for James McKelvey of the Toye, and stayed in this district for the rest of his life.

In 1902 he married Rose Carson and in the same year he bought a melodeon, with the intention of playing to dancers, to make some extra money. He said: “Ah cudnae get whut Ah wanted on the melojum so Ah bocht a fiddle.”

Having descended from a long line of fiddlers — his grandfather William Savage was a famous fiddler — he had no difficulty in learning to play the fiddle. His fingering was very precise and he could change with ease from the cutty bowing of jigs, polkas and schottisches to the long bowing of waltzes. In the playing of open strings, his volume of tone didn’t drop, as was the case in the playing of most fiddlers. When asked the secret of keeping good time, he said that he picked out the best dancing couple in the hall and played by watching them.

One night he was playing to a noisy crowd at Ballymacreely and asked them to be a bit quieter. They kept quieter for about five minutes and then got as noisy as ever. He stopped playing, walked to the edge of the platform and said: “Yin mare heugh an’ Ah’ll pit the fiddle in the baag.”

He played for dances right up to his death at the age of seventy-five on 22 November, 1956.

Jackie Donnan