The camerawork is not the greatest, it must be said. 
Our camerawoman has gone stage side.
I thought she was bringing us to the jacks for a second.
Bustinâ Outta Here is a terrific live song.
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He just played Dublin Town. 
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Serious Definitely Maybe-like energy here.
Big finish now.
Itâs All Good.
What a closer to any gig.
Unreal. Unbelievable.
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Just leaving vicar street. I think I will have yo go home, Iâm emotionally drained. What a man, what a warrior poer
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Soft Rain is a bona fide classic. 
Sam Jenkins is my highlight of the new album. Itâs from the same family as Colony.
All the liesâŚ
Guys, I think Iâm going to give tomorrow nightâs Iveagh Gardens gig the skip as I want to prioritise an early departure for Cork on Saturday morning. Is anybody heading along? Iâll let you know if I have a change of heart.
Tonightâs Vicar Street gig is live on Facebook from about 9pm
Daithi Burke
Nearly 100 minutes of hurling played, ankle fucked, after a savage battle with John Conlon. You expect leaders to step up.
Hon Burke.
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The warrior poet/performer appears tonight with Ray Darcy and tomorrow night on Who do you think you are for those of you who are interested. CC @Big_Dan_Campbell
Vicar Street concert live now for anybody interested.
Fuck it I might just go and get two tickets for him tomorrow night. What a man
Chicken soup for the soul
The greatest living Irishman, what a man!!!
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Roaring into a mic about Doob-ah-lin tow-an. Shite.
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Now that is as good an excuse as any to chill out and launch into a good bottle of whiskey on the 23rd of December
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Letter from Damo
Dia dhaoibh a chairde
Howayiz all my friends
Damo here on a blustery bright day in Dublin.
Got some tough news to swallow today my friends. The Christmas Vicar Street shows that so many of us have been living for have been drastically curtailed. Seating only. So 400 odd people a show instead of 1500.
Iâm really sorry about this but weâve struggled to find another solution with these last minute announcements.
Weâve spoken to the great people in Aikens and they can help us make 6 shows work in Vicar Street under the guidelines.
But we have to refund everyone who bought tickets first before we put the 6 nights back on sale , and weâre only allowed 400 people a night under the newly announced restrictions.
So this means some of the people who bought tickets wonât get to this run of shows and Iâm broken hearted over this my friends, among other things.
Myself and the wonderful band have followed all the guidelines through this pandemic, got vaccinated, and now this new variant is throwing everything up in the air again. Or at least decisions around it are.
Over the last two years since 2019, weâve only been able to do a few shows, and it would have been a disaster to cancel these shows as well, so weâre trying to salvage something here and we really appreciate your understanding as we work through it.
As it is, these 6 shows in Vicar Street will basically manage to cover themselves by paying the amazing crew, staff and band. Thereâs lots of mouths to feed, and little faces that need smiles on them for Christmas and anyone whos there will get a great lift, including ourselves.
Whatever else happens my friends itâs important we all look after each other here, stay strong and face into this madness with patience.
I was over in the UK with the great Ross Killeen, the director of the documentary about the healing power of music, Love Yourself Today, travelling from city to city to promote it, and practically nobody was wearing masks indoors as its not mandatory over there, well it didnt seem to be. Their opinion is that weâre vaccinated, we need to get on with life instead destroying massive swathes of the community financially who are vaccinated and desperate to get back to work.
The film Ross created, Love Yourself Today, well, im speechless at whats hes captured. Bowled over. When he initially came to me, i wasnt so sure that he wouldnt make a bollix of it, because i didnt know him from Adam, and i never believed the vibration down in the depths of the jungle in Vicar Street could be properly captured on camera. But he somehow done that and more. And the three heroes, legends of the movie, Jonathan, Nadia, and Packy, they brought the whole thing to another dimension with their strength, wisdom, positivity, and their bravery in sharing their stories, for they knew their stories would help others, even though its a huge step to open yourself up like that.
Been a really tough two month as my father has been very sick up in the Mater Hospital in Dublin and he passed away last week surrounded by my two brothers Emmett and Gary and his wonderful partner Eta.
I had said goodbye many times over the six weeks he was in, as we thought he could leave us at any minute. He went forty two days withouth food and wouldnt drink any water, and kept ripping the fluid drip out of his arm, its fair to say he wanted out. Irelands oldest hunger striker we were calling him. At seventy five and with all his ailments he was still as strong as a bull in the bed but maybe too strong for his own good. He was strong but his head was gone, and he always told us that that was the last thing he would ever want to happen to him, as a proud Irish man, he didnt want to be a burden on anyone and end up in confusion and fear every day.
Gino Kenny from the socialist party People Before Profit is still trying to pass a bill in the Dail Eireann called death with dignity, i really hope it makes it, as ive seen first hand how people can be kept alive against their own will in circumstances theyd never agree to if in sound mind or body, but thats another story.
The band and myself weâre scheduled to headline the incredible Irish music show Other Voices in Dingle for its 20th anniversary, and i wasnt sure whether to pull out of the show, but i knew the Daddy would want me to go and do what my Mammy and himself put me here to do, and i had been at his bedside for weeks, every time i left id kiss him on the forehead, wipe my tears and try not to blubb, and iâd say goodbye for the last time fighting back the tears again but losing.
He was being called by his people towards the end, called to come over the great divide, he was outstretching his arms and calling his brother and mothers name. I was singing old Irish songs to him by his bedside that he was reacting to them, like the beautiful old lullaby Seothin Seo, and the Rising of the Moon, that he joined in with on the choruses, even though he didnt know who i was that day. And playing songs on my phone into his ear like Finbar Fureys âI Remember You Singing This Songâ.
And Christy Moores John Oâ Dreams, Sinead OâConnors âJohn i Love Youâ, Clannads âTheme from Harrys gameâ, Christy Hennessys âI Am a Starâ, and the Beatles âAll You Need Is Loveâ and âLet it Beâ.
When you love someone deeply, its very hard to let them go, you never want them to leave you, but if theyve no quality of life, and are in terror of the future, and are getting frustrated as they cant do all the things they loved to do, well, its hard but, id rather them pass over, move house, go over the great divide, than to be kept alive in pain and confusion. Passing on, moving house is easier for them, hard for you though. But true love is almighty, and if you can feel it, and give and receive it, youâve made it, youâve won.
He keeps giving us signs that hes okay over in the other world, signs in the form of songs that he sang.
I wont go into all of the signs and bore you, but heres an example. My brothers played him Andrea Bocellis âTime to Say Goodbyeâ, and he passed over the great divide to that song. I got a text half an hour before i went onstage in Dingle, that he was gone, and i was told what song he had passed to, and my heart was broken by the news, but i threw my grief on the fire, and said, iâll do the show for him, to serenade his soul across the great divide, and i reckon we did him proud, John Reynolds, Graham Kearns, Eamonn DeBarra, John Colbert and me.
The next day after he passed, when i had flew back from Kerry, i knew i needed to write some poignant words, so i went to my local pub with pen and paper later that night, and across from me i noticed me a well dressed lady iâd never seen in there before (its a very local shop, you do know everyone in it), and this lady, out of the blue, starts singing in Italian, and it sounded quite familiar, but i was in disbelief a little that this was happening.
My mouth falls open a little as she starts singing the chorus in English, âTime Toooo Sayhayyy Goodbyeâ , i have never heard that song sung in any pub, house party or singsong. Thanks Daddy, for taking the time to let me know your all good.
These are the spiritual nudges that cynics ignore and scorn, but people should look back sometimes to our indigenous ancestors, who were great caretakers to Mother Earth for a hundred thousand years or more, before certain people came to believe that they were superior to the Mother and other peoples, and started to abuse and make profit from the Mother and other peoples.
Its not very smart in my opinion to destroy the only home youve ever known, animals have more sense than these insatiably greedy superior acting people, so filled with self importance and hate and scorn for other peoples.
The indigenous ones lived within the tribe, children were watched, to see what their gift was, what they gravitated towards, something they could do better than most others, and certain people in the tribe were spiritual, and they saw and felt things that others didnt, and the others in the tribe believed them, but now they just call you a crackpot or a liar if you profess to feel these nudges and visions, because the tribe was slowly dismantled by colonists and capitalism and nihilism and individualism and greed.
My Father passed his love of unaccompanied singing to me and my brothers and their childerdin, and the love of the singsong, as did my Mother and her people. I was blessed that both my Mothers and Fathers people cherished the singsong, in houses in Cabra West and Coolock and Donaghmede and Irishtown. Its a great link to our Gaelic past and ive tried to bring this to the big rooms i play. I always recalll in the singsongs, how safe i felt, how they put everyone there in a great humour, and how when someone sang a song and the whole room joined in on the chorus, its like we all grew wings and flew off across the city to the Wicklow moantains. Ive tried to replicate this on a bigger scale in rooms like Vicar Street.
Anyway my friends, im grieving here, so dont judge this letter too harshly, its all from the heart, and from my almighty love for this planet and its people, stay strong, love yourselves, keep singing, we will prevail
Massive Love
Damo X
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