Family of Derry man speak of his joy at restoration of late son's bodhrán at BBC's Repair Shop before he passed away

The story of the bodhrán drum – crafted by gifted musician and a much loved son and brother Seamus McGuinness in the 1970s from a garden sieve owned by his father – was showcased during Wednesday evening’s episode of the popular TV programme on BBC One.

Jackie McGuinness from the Creggan area of Derry passed away in March this year at the age of 92, but despite the TV episode only airing this week, he actually got to view the show surrounded by his family after they were granted a private preview by the production company back in January.

His daughter Catherine came up with the idea of getting the bodhrán restored after her parents, keen Repair Show viewers Jackie and Rita, who passed away the year previous to her husband, had mused on whether they had anything that would be deemed worthy of restoration.

Explaining the back story, Catherine told the Journal: “The story starts just before Seamus passed away. Seamus had made the bodhrán himself growing up in the 1970s with a garden sieve and all the tools from the house, and the skin from dad’s drum kit and our colouring-in pencils and my mother’s stencil from the Irish dancing frock. He stretched the skin over the sieve and did a bit of woodwork on it.

"Everything was handmade in a shed, a bit like The Repair Shed. Back in the ‘70s you hadn’t got the money to buy an instrument. Seamus was very musical, he was self taught and he could turn his hand or his mouth to anything musical.”

The bodhrán had been located elsewhere for a long time but turned up shortly before Seamus passed away from cancer in 2016. “It was brought to mum’s house. It was in a terrible state and didn’t represent Seamus at all and his free spirited musical way. Mum and dad were always disappointed about that so it was put away.

"Mum and dad were always very, very keen The Repair Shop watchers. It was something they really enjoyed. My sister Jacqueline noticed they’d be engrossed in it and my mother used to say, ‘Jackie we must have something up them stairs of value’. It was not about being of great value in money terms, but the attachment of something. One night i was lying in bed and it came into my head: ‘the bodhran!’. That was always of sentimental value to them.”

Sadly, Catherine and her siblings had lost their treasured mother and Jackie his beloved and devoted wife Rita, in January last year.

A few months later Catherine contacted The Repair Shop and explaining the story of the bodhrán. There followed back and forth information gathering and relaxed interviews online last summer before it was all systems go and they were invited over to England.

At first her father was a bit sceptical that this was actually for real. “My father was very much part of it all, but at the start he didn’t believe me,” Catherine laughs. “He was saying ‘What are you talking about going on The Repair Shop? We’ll never be on that, sure we’ve nothing of great worth’. They I said to him we we’re having a zoom call with one of the producers in May and only then, only when he saw them did he realise this was happening, and I couldn’t get him to stop talking then! He was brilliant so he was.”

Jackie was unable to go over for the hand over of the bodhrán to The Repair Shop team on September 1 as he was already pre-booked to fly to New York that day, but he was there for the big reveal “which was even better”, his daughter said.

“It was amazing. When we arrived it was like he was meant to be there. I took a step back and thought, this is your time now daddy. He was very relaxed, and of course it was emotional. There was disbelief,. He was saying to himself ‘is this happening to me?’ while looking round at photographers and cameramen. He was a 92 year old man.”

The McGuinness family reunited with their father on their mother’s first anniversary in January this year. There father had a chest infection and Catherine contacted the producers who agreed to send over a 48-hour link so they could all watch it together.

“He still couldn’t believe it. He cried and cried with joy. But all he saying was, ‘your mother is not here to see it.’ Little did we know a couple of weeks later we would lose him.”

Having lost their father so recently and their mother just last year, watching the show on Wednesday was always going to be an emotional event, but Catherine said they wanted to watch it in the spirit of their father, who was so excited and proud that this was happening.

"I was speaking to the producer of the The Repair Shop – and they have been brilliant – and I told them, you know what, the best kept secret was not a secret at all as he told everybody; he was so excited. They were saying at least you’re being honest and at least it wasn’t on Facebook or Instagram, but I said, ‘no but he would have had it in the Journal if he’d had half the chance!’

"He had the most beautiful personality, so loving and caring, never raised his voice in his life. He was just such a beautiful person. Even being sick, right down to his last breath, it was ‘thank you’, ‘thank you’. He was just a dream of a man and it’s great to be able to say that,” Catherine said. “And Seamus is playing to his biggest audience ever!”

If you missed the show this episode of the The Repair Show you can still watch it on BBC iPlayer.