Death of Galway singing legend blessed with an unforgettable voice
The death of Dolores Keane has left Galway – and the wider world of traditional music – bereft, bringing down the curtain on the life of one of the finest and most unique singers the country has ever produced.
President Catherine Connolly led the tributes to the Caherlistrane singer, rightly describing her as ‘one of the great voices of this island, and of the world’.
“Shaped from childhood by the tradition of her aunts Rita and Sarah, she carried that forward with fierce, joyful intelligence, and she made it new,” said the President.
“With De Dannan, in her solo work, on A Woman's Heart, and in recordings that have become part of the fabric of Irish life, she showed what it means to bring the full weight of yourself to a song.
“Nanci Griffith once said she had a sacred voice. She was right. But what made it sacred was her honesty. She gave everything, without pretence,” she added.
Dolores Keane died at her home in Caherlistrane. She was 72.
A cornerstone of the renowned Keane musical family, she was raised by her aunts, well-known sean-nós singers Rita and Sarah Keane, from the age of four she. She made her first recording for Radio Éireann in 1958, at the age of five.
She went on to co-found De Dannan in the 1975, departing two years later and going on to record several albums with her former husband John Faulkner, before embarking on a solo career.
Her personality just melted the hearts of everyone in Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ, De Dannan founder and fiddle player Frankie Gavin described Dolores Keane’s death as ‘a huge loss’.
“Her personality just melted the hearts of everyone in Ireland. She was a wonderful personality. The kindest individual you could ever meet,” he said.
“Her voice was so distinctive ... She was a big-hearted and super generous lady. It’s just heartbreaking.”
She has been to the forefront of the Irish traditional and folk music scene for most of her celebrated life – part of a Keane legacy that includes her brothers Seán and Matt, sister Theresa and several nieces and a grand niece.
In 1992, Dolores Keane was among the many female Irish singers to lend their music to the record-smashing anthology A Woman's Heart.
The album, which also featured her great friend Mary Black as well as Eleanor McEvoy, Frances Black, Sharon Shannon and Maura O'Connell, went on to become the biggest-selling album in Irish history.
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Tánaiste Simon Harris said that Dolores Keane ‘possessed a voice that could reach deep into your soul – a voice that could carry a sense of joy but also sorrow in each and every note’.
Arts and Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan called her ‘a true pioneer of the folk tradition.
“Her unique gift brought the beauty of Irish song to the global stage,” he said.
Dolores Keane also showed her fortitude to overcome difficulties and tragedies in her personal life, including her battles with alcoholism and breast cancer which she spoke about so frankly on the RTÉ documentary, A Storm in the Heart.
In that programme, she also spoke about the impact singing had on her life.
“Music is part of me so much, I couldn’t envisage life without music,” she said.
And, after all, it is her music and her unique voice that will be remembered forever; her definitive versions of songs such as Galway Bay, Caledonia, the Nelson Mandela tribute Lion in a Cage, Far Away in Australia, Ramblin’ Irishman. Paul Brady’s the Island, Donagh Long's Never Be the Sun, and Storm in My Heart.
Every one of them performed in her own inimitable singing style that helped her make other people’s songs her very own.