Profile/Daniel O'Donnell: To some he's a megastar, to others, a drippy figure of fun, but in just two days time the man who once asked the question 'whatever happened to old fashioned love?' is to break all the rules by marrying a divorcee. Róisín Ingle explores the enigma that is Daniel O'Donnell
Woman of a certain age from Sydney to Scunthorpe will turn their thoughts to the tiny fishing village of Kincasslagh on the western shore of Co Donegal this Monday. The son they wished they had, the king of predictable melodies, natty waistcoats and neatly pressed slacks, the butt of jokes for cynical people who don't appreciate old fashioned values, their friend, is getting married.
They long to be there, but will settle for listening to him sing Wedding Bells and simple songs about copper kettles, on the CD player in the kitchen instead. As they butter their toast they wish him well and pray it doesn't rain on his Big Day. They think Majella McLennan, the 41-year-old divorced mother of two from Co Tipperary, who is about to become Mrs Daniel O'Donnell, is the luckiest woman in the world.
As far back as 1994, a conference on cultural identity attempted to unravel the enigma that is O'Donnell and to explain why for millions he is a megastar worthy of devotion, for others a drippy figure of fun. The conference, in Derry, was told the reason he was anathema to the music and media establishment was because he had not undergone the rites of passage of a male musician: "going away a boy and coming back a man". Noel McLaughlin of the University of Ulster said O'Donnell had opted for "the world of home and hearth associated with stagnation and death and the inhibition of male creativity".
As the 40-year-old put it himself when questioned about the perennial Mammy's Boy image, which is as much a part of him as his pastel sweaters: "there are no sex and drugs scandals. No paternity suits. I'm not drying out in some famous clinic. I don't sleep in an oxygen tent. I haven't had a face lift".
He makes some shudder for the same reason he makes millions smile. His mini-mullet hairdo gets mocked, his tea parties where 5,000 devotees trek to see him are ridiculed. Even on the eve of his wedding, the sexuality of the long-time bachelor, is speculated upon, laughed about. Some people just don't get Daniel O'Donnell, and probably never will.
He met his wife-to-be in Tenerife where he has a holiday home and her parents own two restaurants. He proposed last Christmas and she and her former husband obtained a church annulment during the summer, paving the way for the nuptials. His 83-year-old mother Julia, whom he still calls Mammy, is thought to have had some difficulties initially with the fact that her son had fallen in love with a divorcee. "Obviously, with the circumstances of Majella having been previously married it was very difficult for my mother at first, as it would be for any mother. But as my mother got to know Majella and discovered the kind of person she is, she realised she's the right person and that's all that matters," he has said.
Those who know him talk about a dry, self-deprecating wit and sharp business sense. His manager, Sean Reilly, remembers meeting O'Donnell for the first time in January 1986 in the Gresham Hotel. The rendezvous was arranged through Mick Clerkin of Ritz Records who spotted the young Donegal man at a concert in London and believed he might have a future as a solo act.
"I was impressed by his determination, his idea of what he wanted to do, his vision for the future," Reilly recalls. While discos had long overtaken dance halls in terms of popularity, the twentysomething O'Donnell, who had observed the singing career of his older sister Margo, believed there was a gap in the market to cater for an often-ignored musical audience. It is a gap he has successfully filled ever since.
"He's a nice fella, but quite vacuous, I wouldn't say there is a lot beneath the surface," said one person who holidays regularly in O'Donnell's Co Donegal village. "From watching him, I would either say he is just a genuinely nice person who loves people or is someone with a desperate need to be liked".
Derry broadcaster Gerry Anderson, the scriptwriter on his current BBC Northern Ireland series simply entitled Daniel, suggests people find it hard to believe in the sincerity of O'Donnell's show business persona. "What you see on TV or on stage is the real Daniel, not some choreographed entity," he says. "There is a little element of show business but basically it is all him. He is full of contradictions. He is extremely intelligent but has an almost childlike innocence. Simple things are important to him. He sings in his local chapel.
"He likes things and songs that remind him of his childhood. He is like a 12-year-old in some ways but a sophisticated 40-year-old in the way he approaches his business," he says. "I like him a lot. He is a just a really, really nice guy. But people don't get him. His fans do though. And that is all that matters to him."
O'Donnell's father died when he was six. In his year book, where fans can record thoughts and memories "alongside those of Daniel", the singer writes about how his death affected him. "I sometimes wonder would I be a stronger individual if he had been around when I was growing up," he wrote. "It wasn't until I was in my teens and the other fellas were doing things with their fathers that I felt a sense of loss."
Perhaps, he has tried to fill that gap with constant interaction with fans. He spends hours meeting them after concerts, signing autographs, remembering names. He calls his fans friends. There are signs though, that he is withdrawing if only slightly from the adulation. The house he and Majella will live in on Cruit Island near Kincasslagh stands behind security gates and an intercom system. The tea parties have not been as regular in recent years.
"My life is better now than at any other stage because I have somebody to share it with," he recently told the Sunday World's Eddie Rowley, his biographer and one of the few journalists in the print media he seems to trust. He is suspicious of newspapers and the "wee Daniel" image they can't resist rehashing.
"When I think of the future now, I think of what we'll do as opposed to what I'll do". In the past, some of the singer's relationships failed because of his unpredictable lifestyle. "Majella doesn't have a problem with what I do," he said. "She understands what I do. She knows this is what I love to do. This is me. My career is a part of me and I am a part of it. To take one from the other would not be me."
Clichés drip from his lips like the soppy ballads he loves so well. When Majella is not in their bungalow on Cruit Island "it's a house" and when she is "it's a home". "You have to crawl before you can walk," is another favourite. His Mammy is "the greatest woman I have ever met and nobody will ever take her place". He knows some people can't stand him. "From a musical point of view I got scutched \ more than any other singer. I just seem to get under people's skin," he said.
According to one person who has worked with him O'Donnell "doesn't give a damn" any more about media jibes. The constant sniping upset him in the past but now "he just shuts down or plays along with it". There are other more everyday obstacles to negotiate. Daniel O'Donnell doesn't relish walking past building sites, for example, when the jeers can be particularly hurtful. "He just puts his head down and walks on," said an acquaintance.
America is next on the agenda. A few days after he gets married, one of the most hardworking men in the business will fly to America for his annual dates in Branson, Missouri. Since the PBS television network made a show about him, interest has increased and the gigs sold out easily.
On the Internet, US housewives chat about meeting up in Missouri, some say they are going to all the shows. They put his current album, Yesterday's Memories, in the CD player and daydream about Daniel waltzing up the aisle.
The pleasure they get from listening to how he wants to put his arms around them and dance through the night is as pure as it is intense. They hang the washing out to his distinctly middle of the road beat and couldn't care less whether or not the rest of us understand.
The O'Donnell File
Who is he?
Ireland's Botox-free answer to Cliff Richard
Why is he in the news?
He will get married to 41-year-old divorcee Majella McLennan on Monday
Most appealing characteristic?
He has no time for celebrity schmoozing
Least appealing characteristic?
It's a toss-up between his fey Elvis lip curl and a tendency to hug the microphone when singing
Most likely to say?
I Want to Dance With You
Least likely to say?
I had the Gallagher brothers round my gaff last night