John P. Brennock was born in Dungarvan, Co Waterford in 1916. The "P" stood for Plunkett and that was how he was known to family and familiars of his preArmy days.
Having completed his schooling with the Augustinians in Dungarvan, he entered the Army School of Music (ASM) as a cadet in 1936. The cadetship entailed a preliminary course in the Military College on the Curragh, after which his studies were divided between UCD at Earlsfort Terrace and the more specialised curriculum at ASM headquarters at Portobello Barracks (now Cathal Brugha Barracks).
He found the regime there daunting, even traumatic. His tutors, Brase and Sauerzweig, the founders of the ASM, had much to offer nevertheless and he readily absorbed the benefits of their extraordinarily rich musical background and the centuries-old German military music tradition. John's seniors in the still young Irish military music tradition were J.M. Doyle, Arthur Duff, Michael Bowles and Dermot O'Hara.
As a newly commissioned band conductor and graduate of UCD, his first posting was to Cork. From there his name as a musician soon spread, largely by means of broadcasts of patriotic music with the Army band and choir under his direction. This extended series of programmes was part of Radio Eireann's wartime effort. It revealed the young conductor's flair for arrangement and choral training.
To other aspects of military life, however, he did not adapt with equal ease. There is, for example, the story which he enjoyed telling against himself of how, still fresh to the Southern Command, he found himself faced for the first time with the responsibilities of Command Duty Officer. In the middle of an otherwise uneventful night at his lonely post, he received a report of a sighting of a detached barrage balloon drifting inland from over the Channel - not a particularly momentous event. However, the nervous young lieutenant decided this was information for a higher authority and duly phoned the Command OC. That worthy, showing admirable maturity and restraint, merely asked the caller to repeat his name, thanked him and went back to bed. The only outcome of this occurrence was an entirely happy one for the band conductor: He was never again put on command duties!
From Cork, John's next posting was as conductor of the No. 1 Band in Dublin. Those were days when names such as Wagner, Liszt and Smetana might feature in band programmes - at the RDS, say, or in the Hollow in the Phoenix Park - without raising a philistine eyebrow. Between band and audience there was a common acceptance of the musical magnitude of what was being dispensed, a satisfying sense of sharing in thrilling mysteries. The notion that "serious" music had to be "understood", that it was only for initiates, the sophisticated and the well-to-do, had not yet polluted the system. At any rate John's sincerity and patent musicality were a seal of quality and ensured that all sections of band repertoire, from the classical to the latest and lightest, were served with equal dedication.
At the age of 32 he was promoted to Assistant Director of the ASM and later to Director. From his German mentors and his military training he had learned the importance of firm leadership. He accepted the need for order and discipline. At the same time he recognised that individuality is not obliterated by uniformity of dress and drill. His nature and his Christian spirit would not let him forget that soldiers were persons. Indeed, in all spheres of his life he was a man of compassion, a patient listener to other people's problems.
Outside the Army he pursued the ASM's allotted task of fostering music in the greater community. As an opera conductor he was engaged for many a season in Cork and Limerick as well as in Dublin - Verdi being his special enthusiasm.
His love of our folk music went back to his childhood says in Dungarvan. Throughout his career and in retirement he enjoyed arranging the grand old tunes for band or choir or both, on occasion weaving in a tune of his own invention if this seemed apt.
A particularly vivid memory which will be shared by millions of people was the Pope's arrival in the Phoenix Park in 1979. John conducted the Army Band on that occasion, at one stage playing He's got the whole world in his hands, a tune which followed the Pope around the world for many years.
It was touching and peculiarly fitting that the music provided by Army musicians at the interment of the former Director should include the first performance of a funeral march which he himself had recently written.
He will be particularly missed by his wife, Clora, and sons, Paul and Mark, to whom deepest sympathy is extended.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam uasail.
F. O'C.