Eurovision star draws his inspiration from Athenry
Eurovision fans of a certain vintage will remember Happy Man – but these days Cork singer Cathal Dunne is building a second life for himself as a writer. And he’ s delved deep into history – to Athenry and the Great Hunger – for his first novel.
The man who finished fifth for Ireland at the 1979 Eurovision held in Jerusalem has lived in the US since the early eighties, but that has never broken the bonds with his native land.
And now Mercier Press are publishing his debut novel, Athenry, a story of historical fiction set at the height of the Great Famine in the autumn of 1845 – exactly 180 years on from that darkest of times.
“It’s the story of Liam O’Donaghue, an Athenry father who refuses to watch his family starve,” says the singer-turned-author who is also a nephew of former Taoiseach, the late Jack Lynch.
Set ‘in the shadow of Galway’s cliffs’, Liam has carved out a life training Connemara ponies while working on his landlord’s estate and loving his wife Máire.
When their newborn son arrives, their happiness seems complete. But when the Great Famine strikes with merciless fury, survival becomes the only currency that matters.
One desperate night – and one choice that changes everything – takes the novel’s hero on an epic journey from the depths of famine to the abundance of Australian gold rushes where he meets his friend Kumba.
Together they journey onward to the California Gold Rushes, chasing fortune and the hope of return – while back at home, Máire faces her own battle to keep their son alive in a land where hope itself has withered.
Athenry marks a return to the spotlight here for the Cork native domiciled in Pittsburgh with his wife Kathleen and son Ryan – although, in recent years, he penned the new hurling anthem 'Cork My Home'.
He first came to prominence in 1979 when he entered his own composition, Happy Man, into the National Song Contest where he saw off former Irish Eurovision entrants Tina and Red Hurley and future winner Johnny Logan.
Performing in Jerusalem at Eurovision that March, he achieved a respectable fifth place with 80 points – and the single went on to reach number three in the Irish charts.
Athenry – A Famine Tale of Love and Survival, by Cathal Dunne, is published now by Mercier Press.
Pictured: Singer-turned-author Cathal Dunne.