Burial in Dublin for singer Butch Moore

The body of the singer, Mr Butch Moore, will be brought home to Ireland at the weekend for a funeral in Dublin on Monday morning. Mr Moore, who sang Ireland's first entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965, died early yesterday at his home in the United States. He was in his early 60s.

Although he had been recently diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus it is understood he died of heart failure. The lead singer with the Capitol Showband since the mid-1950s, Butch came sixth out of 18 in the 1965 contest with Walking The Streets in The Rain.

The contest, held in Naples, Italy, propelled the young singer into the realm of the "superstar", said a former musical colleague, Mr Paddy Cole.

"It was huge. There were thousands of people at the airport when he came back from Italy. He went on to Cork and he had to be slipped out the hotel through the back door because there were so many hundreds of people waiting for him in the streets."

Mr Cole, who joined the Capitol Showband in 1960 as a saxophonist, said the news of Butch's death came "as an awful shock". He said he had spoken to him at his home, outside Washington DC, on Tuesday night just after Butch had been told he had cancer.

"He was in great spirits, very positive, and said he was going to fight this. He was to go in for tests on Thursday and said he'd be in touch on Thursday to make arrangements for possibly coming back to Ireland for a while during his recuperation."

Mr Moore is survived by his wife, Maeve. He had six children by two marriages.

Christened Seamus Moore, he took the name Butch after he began his singing career at the age of three. In an interview in 1965 his father, Tommy, said: "He got the name Butch when he was about three. Started singing in public when he was in the O'Connell Schools choir."

He joined the Capitol Showband in the late 1950s when the showband era was reaching its zenith.

The band toured Ireland, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. They recorded several albums.

Butch went to the US "about 20 years ago", said Mr Cole, following an opportunity to sing cabaret there with his second wife, Maeve Mulvaney. The two toured the US, and Butch gave his last performances on St Patrick's Day this year.

Mr Cole described him as "a true gentleman"; the composer Mr Phil Coulter said he was "the softest, gentlest man you could meet".

The funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday morning in St Canice's Church in Finglas.