The following article was published in Irish Traditional Music From Chicago, Vol II 1976/77.

Frank Thornton was born in 1908 about five miles from Listowel, Co. Kerry. He started on the flute at age eight, learning from a cousin named Hanrahan who led the town flute band and from another local flute player named Furey. Frank's uncle, Miles thornton, also played the flute and was a dancing teacher and long-time all ireland step dancing champion.

At the American wake held in his honor the night before he left for Chicago in 1929, Frank recalls that there were sixteen musicians playing in the house that night, all of them from the surrounding town land - an area of perhaps five or six square miles. When Frank returned home for a visit seven years later, he could find only two of those sixteen still living in the district. Emigration had taken a heavy toll, but, worse yet, it was apparent that the young people were not taking up the music with anywhere near the same enthusiasm as had his own generation. It was this painful realization that inspired him to devote a major portion of his next forty years to teaching and promoting Irish music using every conceivable means within his grasp.

For eighteen years Frank taught children the flute and tin whistle in his basement and formed a marching band that played Irish music at numerous events in Chicago. In August, 1956 he called together Irish musicians from Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia and led in the foundation of the Irish Musicians' Association. In 1959 he organized the first tour of American Irish musicians to Ireland. It was Frank's intention to demonstrate that Irish music was being maintained in the U.S. by Americans as well as Irish emigrants, and that with proper support and encouragement, the music would become even more strongly rooted in the States.

In 1969, he was instrumental in organizing an American tour of several musicians and singers from Ireland, among them accordionist Paddy O'Brien, fiddler Sean Ryan, flute player/piper Peadar O'Loughlin, and singer Eibhlin Begley. The group toured seven U.S. cities besides Chicago and simultaneously raised funds for the American Congress for Irish Freedom. It was the success of this undertaking that provided the impetus and model for future tours of North American by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

Frank believes that a nation's cultural heritage is its most valuable possession and he spent most of his adult life attempting to create a wider appreciation for the culture of Ireland as expressed through its music, song, and dance. He feels that his efforts have been rewarded and that Irish music is stronger now than at any time over the last hundred years, in both Ireland and American. Certainly, he can take pride in having laid a substantial portion of the groundwork for that revival.

The 1950's also saw the rise of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, a Dublin-based organization originally formed by Irish musicians to support Irish music by forming local branches throughout Ireland. CCÉ was initiated in 1951 and had achieved a fair amount of success by the mid-1950's. It was becoming apparent to many musicians that organizations, despite their inherent difficulties, were useful and even necessary for promoting greater interest in Irish music. Accordingly, in August, 1956 the Irish Musicians Association of America was founded by sixteen musicians attending a meeting at the Midland Hotel in Chicago. Frank Thornton was the first president, and, by the first "Irish Musicians' Ball" held November 30, 1957 at McEnery Hall, sixty musicians had become active members of the Chicago branch. The national organization expanded to twenty-two branches within the next few years but dissolved around 1964 due to an inability to settle matters of organizational structure and procedure. However, the Chicago branch has completed two full decades of continuous activity and is now aligned with CCÉ.

The following article was published in Treoir magazine in November, 1997 and was written by Bill McEvoy.

It is with profound sense of sorrow and deep regret that we record the passing of Frank Thornton, Chicago, Illinois on October 21, 1997. He was 89. Frank was born in Kilbaha near Moyvane, County Kerry on August 29, 1908. It was then and still is an area rich in Irish heritage, culture and tradition. He played a leading role in the founding of Comhaltas here in North America.

Of all the great personalities who illuminated the Comhaltas scene here in the early seventies, there is little doubt that Frank Thornton was one of the most memorable. An extraordinary man in every sense of the word, the very embodiment of a joyous spirit, in love with all things irish, particularly traditional Irish music, song, and dance. He brought consistent and unflagging enthusiasm into his work for Comhaltas. One could only gasp with wonder at the sustained energy with which he had been endowed.

At a very young age, Frank got his first lessons on the flute from his Uncle Jerry, a renowned flute player in that time period. He came to American in 1929 during the Great Depression. It was very hard to find work. He often recalled how he stood in line for hours at Montgomery Wards while job applicants were being interviewed. When my time came to be interviewed, I was extremely polite. The asked me "where are you from?" I said "Ireland". Moved by his sincerity of heart and his meaningful approach, Frank was hired. He was one of a very few hired on that occasion. He went on to serve at Montgomery Wards for the next 9 years, when he joined Chicago Police in 1938. Most of his distinguished services with the police department was on foot patrol, in an area new Lawrence and Milwaukee Avenues, where he endeared himself to the business community and citizens alike. He retired from Chicago Police in 1965.

Almost from the time of his arrival in Chicago, Frank threw himself wholeheartedly into promoting Irish music. He started to teach tin whistle to the young people in his area. The basement room of his home would be filled. Lessons were free and many times he bought instruments as well for those who couldn't afford them. He went on to form the Thornton Fife and Drum Band, a colorful and spectacular group of musicians all dressed in green and gold, solid reflection of his great love for Ireland and for his native County Kerry. his three sons, Jimmy, Jerry, and Frank were all members of the band.

In 1959, Frank led a group of Chicago-based Irish musicians on a tour of Ireland. It was the first ever performing group from America. They performed 23 concerts in 27 days. The great Chicago pianist, Eleanor Keane Neary was part of that group.

This trip to Ireland would always have a profound bearing on Frank's life thereafter. The weather was just dreadful over the North Atlantic. The plane developed engine trouble and was forced to land at Gander, NewFoundland. Soon after departure, the trouble reoccurred and the plane had to return to Gander again. Recalling the awful experience Franks aid, "my thoughts went back to my mother who prayed daily for our safety. All on Board were praying the rosary as the plane bounced from one air pocket to another. I swore in my heart I would never fly to Ireland again." however, this transatlantic experience and pledge for the future did not keep him away from the Emerald Isle. he made 12 more trips, mostly by boat.

In 1956, Frank thought the time had come for a more positive and unified association of Irish Musicians in the various cities of American. Together with a few distinguished musicians here, among them the late Ed Reevy of Philadelphia, Louis E. Quinn of New york, and Johnny McGreevy of Chicago, others too. He founded the I.M.A., Irish Musicians Association of America. Guided by Frank Thornton as its first president, the organization quickly grew in strength and number. In 1963, there were 27 I.M.A. clubs flourishing all across America. In 1969, Frank organized the first ever concert tour of Irish champion musicians from Ireland. This prestigious group was led by the then Comhaltas President Labhras O Murchu. this led to the founding of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann here in 1972, when the then chief Comhaltas organizer, the late Diarmuid O'Cathain came here as the Ardchomhairle representative. He soon made contact with Frank Thornton, who supplied a list of names and contacts that played a vital role in the establishment of Comhaltas here, especially the Annual Concert Tours.

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Poetry by Frank Thornton

Memories of Music

There's a sound in the shore I can hear more and more
Where my thoughts in fond memory abide
It comes from the tune of an Irish Gorsoon
As he plays by the dear Shannon side.

The sound of the flute takes me back to my youth
To the days and the nights so sublime
With Old Ireland in tune 'neath a bright Irish moon
Where the fun that was yours was mine.

There a lad from listowel played with heart and with soul
On his violin soothing and sweet
White Ted from Tralee with accordion on knee
Kept time with the beat of his feet.

How the piper from Strand would blend with the band
And the drummer roll off every note
And the dancers would say, please play until day
As each fellow discarded his coat.

The Garden of Daisies, The King of the Fairies,
The Blackbird and Travellers Reel
The Humors of Bandon played by Paddy Cronin
The Thousane tune boy from the Feal.

The music and laughter would linger long after
We each hite the road to our home
And there in our way to each other we'd say
Keep this music alive where we roam.

Ireland

Such fields of green you have never seen
Or such music played in better tone
And the kind of friends that know no end
To make you feel so much at home

Such a pleasant place on this earth's face
Where there is no worry about time of day
And the men at night by the fireside bright
Tell funny tales in their winning way

Yes, in Ireland it is truly grand
To roam the roads and to view the scenes
And the stars at night in their pure delight
Play hide and seek with the moon's bright beams

You'll find fun galore, yes, and all the more
At ceilis, concerts and fleadh cheoils
So the thing to do for a month or two
Is to visit Ireland and such sights behold.

That Dear Little Town Newtownsandes
Frank Thornton, 1930

Away back in Kerry in a place I know well
in a cute littel corner overlooking the land
Is a quaint little town and I heard people tell
Why they called it that Dear Little Town Newtownsandes.

Each letter has formed a part of its name
And I want to tell for what each letter stands
Then put them together and you'll think the same
Why they called it That Dear Little Town Newtownsandes.

N Meaning no place as dear to your heard
E Stands for ever so faithful and grand
W For wishes when far, far apart
T For that Dear Little Town Newtownsandes
O For old friends who are thoughtful and kind
W For workers of that old native land
N Meaning neighbors that only you'll find in the midst of That Dear Little Town Newtownsandes
S Is for sons of that great Irish race
A For ancestors who are long past and gone
N For the names of who first built the place and called it
That Dear Little Town Newtownsandes.
D for the daughters of long standing fame
E For endeavors to bring peace to the land
S For the sound of that glorious name,
That Dear Little Town Newtownsandes.