“I’M really enjoying the shows, the people seem happier than ever, just to be out. I’ve never seen crowds react better.”
So says Damien Dempsey of his current tour, which will seem him play at Glór on April 29.
Like all musicians he was left idle throughout the pandemic, but says he coped quite well, focusing on nature and reminding himself that many had it harder than himself.
“I just got back to nature, you know? I’m not far from Howth Head, there’s a native wood up there, cliffs, you can see up to the Mourne Mountains, the Cooley Mountains, Cú Chulainn country, you can see down to Wexford and you can see the Hill of Tara.
“I climbed that a lot of days and looked at the east coast of our beautiful island. I got into the sea when I came back down and that was keeping me together.
“I sort of put it in perspective, I said some poor oul heads are getting a terminal diagnosis now and they’d love to be healthy in the lockdown.
“I thought of Ireland 200 years ago, what people were going through then. Having a warm bed and food in the fridge now, people back then were fighting to stay alive, people were trying to wipe them off them off the face of the planet. I put it in perspective and that made it a lot easier and got me through.”
He is, however, currently grieving, his father having passed away late last year.
“I was lucky to have him so long. Again, I thought of people I knew whose fathers died when they were nine. I feel lucky to have had him so long.”
Damien wrote extensively throughout the pandemic, and has one song about his father and the power of love.
“There’s one about the father and about losing people and love. I suppose it’s about loss too. It’s called Love is the Bomb. It’s an almighty thing, love is. If you feel and receive it, you’ve won, you’ve made it.”
Damien, now 46, was writing about homelessness when he was still a teenager, with the problem even more pressing nowadays, he has returned to the theme.
“You see front line workers in the pandemic and they can’t afford to rent, there’s something wrong. Back in the ‘50s and that there were Council estates built all over Ireland for working people and most of them bought their houses eventually. We just need affordable homes for working people. If they could do it back then I’m sure it can be done now.”
While it is something many people would not be aware of, cocaine consumption is relatively mainstream nowadays, and he has also turned his focus on the devastation it can wreak.
“We have a cartel in this country and they’re putting it in every corner of the country, every small town and every little village, it’s everywhere. It’s destroying a lot of people, really destroying them.
“A lot of people see it like alcohol now, that it’s only a sniff. But we’ve been drinking for 5,000 years and this is the first generation to do this stuff.
“I’ve seen what it’s done to my community, it’s destroyed a lot of people and a lot of people are dead now that I knew.”
He says his mind “is a racer”, thinking all the time, and he practices yoga, deep breathing and mediation, trying to slow himself down a little.
“We have 50-80,000 thoughts a day so if you can even quiet your mind for a minute it makes so much difference. If you can do that a few times a week – I don’t know – it makes life easier.”
Mental illnesses are commonplace nowadays, and he feels changes in lifestyle are to blame, and that people can do things to help themselves.
“There’s a lot of depression among young people because they never touch the land any more. Our feet never touch the ground, so they say to take your shoes and socks off and put your feet on
the ground.
“Doing some gardening is supposed to be very good, we need to touch the earth, that’s our mother. There’s a lot of stuff we need to get back to, I think.”
In general he says he is quite content with his life right now. “It gets easier as you get older. You get a bit more comfortable in your own skin, not as worried about what other people think of you.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.