Claire, look! There’s Dolores Keane!

“Claire, look! There’s Dolores Keane!” my father whispered excitedly and I looked to where his finger was pointing. We were at an outdoor auction on a Sunday morning in Tuam, a neighbouring town. Amidst the bidders -most of them men dressed in dark clothing and cloth caps – I saw a small woman with flaming red hair cascading all the way down her back. I think I was about 5 or 6 years of age then and although many years have since passed, I have never forgotten the reverent awestruck tone of my father’s voice that day and the beautiful auburn hair that belonged to Dolores Keane.

Dolores Keane was one of the founding members of De Dannan in the early ‘70s and later embarked on a hugely successful solo career. From Caherlistrane in Co. Galway, a few miles down the road from where I grew up, her singing career began as a young girl and she was heavily influenced by the sean-nós singing tradition (a style of singing in Ireland without accompaniment that is heavily ornamented) of her two aunties Sarah and Rita Keane. Her distinctive voice embodied a myriad of emotions and feelings and was atypical of many other female singers from Ireland at that time. Her voice was anything but pretty; deeply guttural and capable of transporting the listener straight to the place or circumstance she was singing about. Leading country singer Nanci Griffith described her as having a sacred voice and indeed Dolores brought a very individual interpretation to songs as wide ranging as Let it Be by the Beatles, Teddy O’ Neill - a song of Irish immigration and The Island a song written by Paul Brady.

Dolores fought a long, protracted battle with alcohol addiction and she was interviewed on an Irish national radio show in in 2024 saying: "I was also the last person to realise I was an alcoholic. I didn't know the effects that drinking was having on me until other people pointed it out to me. I started slurring my words while singing on stage and then I thought I better do something about this. I actually didn't realise I was an alcoholic." She was later interviewed on national television and said the following about her addiction: "I’ve had a lot of ups and downs during my life as a singer," she said. "A few major things, drink being one of them and I think, and I’m saying this to the audience now, it doesn’t help anyone. You think that it does, but it creeps up on you . . . like do you ever get a bad itch, and it starts to move and you think, `ooh, there’s something wrong here’? That’s how it happened to me. The whole feeling of being an alcoholic, it really scared me, and I was at a stage where I thought I’m never going to beat this, I’m never going to beat this and it wasn’t until I met a very dear friend of mine and he spoke to me and within a matter of about half an hour, I knew that I didn’t need it anymore. It was as simple as that. She added, "He just asked me the question - `do you want to go to the coffin early, is this how you want to be remembered, is this what your life has become because of this blasted drink?’ and I said, `no, no, it’s not so I gave it up’."

Those of you who attend the TABB Tuesday Share & Support meetings may have heard Dolores’ song My Refuge at the beginning of the meeting. Her voice although a little ragged and shaky expresses the lived experience of battling alcohol addiction and I think will resonate with most of us.

My Refuge

I was drawn to the bright light

To see the cobwebs on the wall

Sang stages the world over

From the famous to the small

The song I was singing

I was singing from the heart

But the life I was living,

complicated from the start

I was drawn to the wrong roads

The bottle became my friend

I held the neck so tightly

In case the flow would end

I made some poor decisions

Hurt loved ones along the way

I’m here to say I’m sorry

I regret things every day

I sang through mu troubles

I drank through my pain

Music was my refuge,

music kept me sane

People thought they owned me

To do what I was told

Music was my rainbow

My constant crock of gold

I was drawn to the self-doubts

They were messing with my head

I thought booze was the answer

But it made it worse instead

I know that people love me

And that has kept me strong

But it’s not about me anyway

For the hope is in the song

After taking a long break from performing due to ill health, Dolores released an album in 2024 at the age of 70. Little did we know it would be her last. The singer passed away last month at the age of 72 and has left a huge legacy in terms of influencing other artists. She remains one of the most defining voices of Ireland’s folk tradition.

As a young emigrant desperately trying to cling on to my identity in a foreign land, listening to Dolores and learning her songs kept me anchored both to all that I had left behind and to my own sense of self. Her unique voice and style of singing was all the encouragement I needed to be braver in a strange new world and above all to have the courage to be myself. Today as an older and wiser woman in recovery, I identify with her now more than ever and only wish that I could have had the opportunity to sit down with her over a cuppa and share a few songs and stories.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam (May her soul be at God’s right hand)

MEMBERS ONLY

He just asked me the question - ’do you want to go to the coffin early, is this how you want to be remembered, is this what your life has become because of this blasted drink?’ and I said, ’no, no, it’s not, so I gave it up’.

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