AN ESTIMATED 10,000 people packed “reunion” events to celebrate the memory of the singer Joe Dolan in Killarney, Co Kerry, over the weekend.
They came from all over Ireland, England, and as far away as Australia to the venue, at which the singer had played cabaret shows and packed the dance hall for more than 25 years.
The singer from Mullingar passed away last St Stephen’s Day after a short illness, aged 68.
Joe Dolan: the Reunion Show, which ran for three nights in the 3,000-seater INEC at the Gleneagle Hotel, was quickly sold out. A memorial Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, attracted one of its biggest ever attendances.
The virtual shows saw his band play live while images of Joe singing were projected above.
At the noon Mass on Saturday, outside annexes were full to overflowing and Joe’s fans – mostly women over 40 – sat on the stone steps of the altar to hear chief celebrant Fr Brian D’Arcy speak.
This was a weekend of celebration “unique in the history of Irish show business”, Fr D’Arcy told the more than 2,000 people. “I have never known anything like this,” he remarked, adding that a Joe show had always managed to lift people out of themselves.
“Whoever thought Joe Dolan would fill a church?” he remarked to laughter. At the concerts people did not know whether to laugh or cry, and Goodbye Venice broke people’s hearts, he added. He certainly had the hankie out.
Women in the crowd spoke of their feelings about the shows. One said she was glad to go to a last Joe Show, but his would be the very last Joe Dolan event she would attend. Another who went outside the INEC with a drink was heard saying she was having “a quiet drink with Joe”.
Special guests at the shows included Paddy Cole, American Drifters, The Dolans, Lorraine and the Conquerors, Keith and Showband Show, Sil Fox, Ronan Collins and Greg Traynor.