Irish folk singer Dolores Keane passed away at her home in Caherlistrane, Ireland, on March 16. She was 72 years old.
Videos by Suggest
According to her obituary, Keane was born in 1953 and grew up in a musical family. She was raised by aunts who had performed the sean-nós style of traditional Irish music.
At just the age of five, Keane made her first recording. In 1975, she co-founded De Dannan in County Galway, which later became one of Ireland’s favorite traditional music groups. Their big break was the release of their song, “The Rambling Irishman.”
Although she left the group for a time, Keane returned to record two albums in the ’80s. She also maintained her solo music career when she wasn’t touring with De Dannan, releasing a self-titled solo album in 1988. In 1989, she released her album A Lion in a Cage, which was notably written in protest of Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment.
She then contributed to the compilation A Woman’s Heart in 1992. She released two more solo albums, Solid Ground and Night Owl, in the ’90s.
Keane later took a break from her music career to focus on her health woes caused by depression and alcoholism. In the 2010s, she was declared cancer-free after being previously diagnosed with the disease.
The singer later received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Galway.
She is survived by her children, Joseph and Tara, as well as her brother Seán and her sister Theresa.
Keane Once Spoke About Who Inspired Her Music Career
During an interview with RTE in the early ’80s, Keane spoke about being inspired by musician Willie Clancy and others who had visited her home while she was growing up.
“I can never remember actually learning any of those songs, actually sitting down and trying to learn them,” she recalled. “But I heard them sung so often, I just had them in the head all the time. I could sing most of the songs with Sarah and Rita, definitely all of them by 11 or 12.”
Among those who paid tribute to Keane was President Catherine Connolly.
“It is with profound sadness that I learned of the death of Dolores Keane,” Connolly shared in a statement. “She was one of the great voices of this island, and of the world. Shaped from childhood by the tradition of her aunts Rita and Sarah, she carried that forward with fierce, joyful intelligence, and she made it new.”
Connolly further shared, “With De Dannan, in her solo work, on A Woman’s Heart, and in recordings that have become part of the fabric of Irish life, she showed what it means to bring the full weight of yourself to a song.”
The president extended her condolences to Keane’s family, adding, “Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis,” which translates to “May her faithful soul be at the right hand of God.”