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Music

Message of hope, in life and song

Ronan Tynan, who overcame a disability and double amputation, now inspires with his lyrics.

By JOHN FLEMING
Published July 21, 2005

Ronan Tynan was feeling optimistic a few weeks ago about his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees. The team appeared to be emerging from a seasonlong funk, having just won two straight games over the Baltimore Orioles.

"We absolutely nailed them," Tynan said. "When have the Yankees not been there? I'm not worried in the least."

Tynan, of course, is the Irish tenor who has become famous for singing God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at Yankee Stadium. His stirring performance of the song at a 2001 memorial for victims of Sept. 11 was for many people a defining patriotic moment.

Saturday night, Tynan will give a concert at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Accompanied by a pianist and violinist, his program will include inspirational anthems, Irish standards and contemporary songs from his new self-titled album.

It has been nearly two years since Tynan left the Irish Tenors to pursue a solo career. "I was getting extremely busy," he said from his manager's office in New York. "I was one of the founding members. I decided, "Let's get a rest and see how things go.' We're still very friendly."

The Irish Tenors continue, with John McDermott, another founding member, recently rejoining the group, whose other singers are Anthony Kearns and Finbar Wright. They have a new album coming out, Sacred.

Tynan's latest release ranges from Man of La Mancha to How Great Thou Art to From a Distance. A poignant highlight is Passing Through, a song he wrote about his mother, who has Alzheimer's disease.

"I used to light a candle and reminisce on the really great times, all the great moments I had with my mom and dad," he said. "It kind of passed me through the situations when I was feeling a little down."

Tynan's mother, 78, has suffered from Alzheimer's for 15 years. "It is one unforgiving disease," he said. "I think it's harder for the people who love them. I've never lost the idea that it is my mother, and I'll always talk to her as if she's perfectly normal, because you don't know what's going on inside. Who knows?"

He has played his CD for his mother, a former teacher and head of a hospital catering department in Ireland. "She listens, but you've no idea what her reaction is," he said.

The tenor sang Ave Maria at the funeral of Ronald Reagan, who had Alzheimer's. He also sang at the funeral of the father of U2's Bono, who supplied a blurb for the new album: "When Ronan sings the clouds cry but the sun turns up sooner than it would have."

Tynan, 45, credits his mother and father for inspiring him to overcome his disability, a congenital deformity of the legs. In Passing Through, he sings, "Her strength still burns within me/Like the day she bade me stand."

When he was 20, Tynan was in a motorcycle accident that further damaged his legs, resulting in a double amputation below the knees. He wears prostheses. Still, he earned a medical degree in Ireland and became a world-class disabled athlete and equestrian. He didn't take up singing until he was 33.

Tynan, who divides his time between New York and Ireland, doesn't practice as a physician. "I love medicine, but this is my career now," he said.

The tenor is also in demand as a motivational speaker. "I basically tell people that nothing is impossible," he said. "Belief and encouragement are the matches which light the candles of our dreams. I believe that the will is inside us all, and when you capture this will, it brings out the finest from you."

Tynan would not, however, speak about a recent episode in his life. In 2002, while staying at the famed Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado for a motivational speech, he alleges in a lawsuit, a shower bench in his handicapped-designated room collapsed and caused him to fall, and he has suffered debilitating pain ever since. In May, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the tenor is seeking more than $8-million in damages from the hotel.

"I don't think that's of any interest to anybody," Tynan said, declining to comment this month.

PREVIEW: Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sings at 8 p.m. Saturday at Ferguson Hall of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. $39.50-$49.50. VIP seats, including a chance to meet Tynan, are $100. 813 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045; www.tbpac.org

[Last modified July 20, 2005, 09:58:07]