Music and entertainment figures will join friends and family of Christy Dignam today as they say their final goodbye to the “man of the people”.
Imelda May, Finbar Furey, Bono, and Christy’s band mates from Aslan are some of the big names expected to attend the strictly private funeral. Footballer Paul McGrath and RTE ’s Ryan Tubridy will also pay their respects at the ceremony which has been organised by Christy’s son-in-law, Darren.
The singer’s wife Kathryn and daughter Kiera will say farewell after the funeral cortege takes a circular route through Finglas in North Dublin, with huge crowds expected to line the streets. The singer, who passed away at home on Tuesday, aged 63, will then be cremated at Glasnevin.
One of the musicians performing at the funeral is Eamonn Walsh, from Ballina, Co Mayo, who has played with Keira, a talented singer in her own right.
Read more: Stirring mural of Christy Dignam goes up in Dublin ahead of star's funeral
He said it was “a huge honour“ to be invited to play the Uilleann pipes for the much-loved star, who died after a long illness. He told Midwest Radio yesterday he first met Christy at Aslan band mate Rodney O’Brien’s wedding 10 years ago.
Eamonn said: “When I first heard the news I was so sad, and so was the whole country.
“He was so down to earth. I always remember him saying at the wedding reception, ‘I love the Uilleann pipes’.”
In his last radio interview with Tubridy, Christy said during his
palliative care at home he felt he was on “a conveyor belt up to heaven”.
He revealed that although he wasn’t particularly religious, he believed “we are all spiritual beings in one sense or another”.
In the same interview Christy spoke about his father raising eight kids in Finglas on an upholsterer’s wage. He said: “We had nothing. We had absolutely nothing as kids.”
But to Christy’s friends and family, he was everything. Musician Eoin Glackin, who toured with Aslan, paid tribute to Christy yesterday on Facebook.
He wrote: “When I think of the times I was lucky enough to spend on the road, I just remember laughing. He was so much fun. An incredible soul.”
Clannad’s Moya Brennan wrote on Instagram: “Go in peace on the next part of your journey, leaving so much love behind you. Special to have met you.”
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