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LAST UPDATE | 17 Jun 2023
THE FUNERAL AND public farewell of Christy Dignam took place today in Finglas, Co Dublin.
A crowd of mourning family, friends and fans followed the Aslan frontman’s hearse through Finglas, before gathering outside of Erins Isle GAA Club.
His fellow bandmates and hundreds from the community in Finglas and all over Dublin were seen paying their respects to the singer.
Dignam died on Tuesday evening in his home after a long-term illness of a rare blood disease, amyloidosis.
In 2013 he was diagnosed with the disease and blood cancer multiple myeloma. He underwent extensive treatment, including chemotherapy.
He had been receiving palliative care at home since December following six months of treatment at Beaumont Hospital.
Members of Dignam’s close family followed the hearse through the town, with friends and fans following and looking on.
The funeral cortege started on the Tolka Valley Road and travelled towards Finglas village before arriving at a playing field opposite Erin’s Isle GAA club and pausing for a video tribute.
Two friends from Malahide, who’ve been fans of Dignam’s since they were sixteen, told The Journal: “We’ve probably seen him 20 or 30 times over the last number of years.
“We came to pay tribute to him.”
One of the friends said they had seen Dignam play all around the country in various venues, clubs and bars, and their group of friends were “big fans” of the Irish singer.
“Vicar Street, the Olympia, Iveagh Gardens, the Point,” one friend listed. “We’re big fans.”
The funeral procession began at 9.45 am this morning and led the crowds who gathered through Finglas to the GAA club.
As the cortege drove on Cardiffsbridge Road, neighbours in rain jackets, jeans, Aslan T-shirts and some in pyjamas; drivers; dog-walkers; and passers-by took a minute to pay their respects – with some playing music from the Dublin band and flying Irish flags along the road.
The hearse stopped for a moment at Coláiste Ída, a local school in Finglas, where a large group of people from the community had gathered to applaud the hearse as it drove by.
Dignam grew up in Finglas, on the northside of the capital. In 1982, he formed the rock band Aslan alongside Alan Downey, Joe Jewell and Billy McGuinness, as well as Tony McGuinness, the band’s former bassist.
Aslan became one of the most popular bands on the Irish music scene after they released their first album Feel No Shame in 1988.
The album – and in particular the track ‘This Is’ – showcased the band’s unique sound and Dignam’s powerful vocals.
Another fan, from Finglas, said she thought the event was “brilliant, but very sad”.
Fans were reminded of Dignam’s legacy when the procession reached the GAA club. As the hearse drove between the crowd fans and onlookers applauded and cheered the singer’s coffin, with many shedding tears.
Balloons from people outside the club were released into the sky as ‘This Is’ played on a large screen set up for the crowds. Much of the crowd sang each lyric of Dignam’s notable song.
Dignam’s family and close friends opened the back of the hearse and stood with the coffin as numerous songs from the singer played on in the background.
A video tribute was then played to the large crowd who gathered to pay their respects to the band’s frontman.
Ryan Tubridy gave a video tribute to the singer on the large screen. Tubridy paid tribute to Dignam’s love for singing.
Tubridy said he remembered all the times the singer joined him on The Late Late Show “with Finbarr Fury, or with Imeda May, or with Aslan [...] singing, doing what he does best”.
“But also, loving. And that’s what he was; loving. I think it’s fair to say having met him, only a couple of months ago in his house, he knew that.
“The people from around this beautiful country said ‘He’s one of ours’,” Tubridy said.
A cheer quickly erupted from the crowd, who began to applaud and whistle the tribute led by the radio host.
“Christy Dingam, Idol. Legend. Beloved,” Tubridy added.
The cheers and applause were quickly muted as a minute’s silence was called for Christy Dignam and quietness fell over the crowd of adoring fans outside the GAA club.
A minute of silence is paid to Christy Dignam at his public farewell in Finglas. @thejournal_ie #ChristyDignam #RIP pic.twitter.com/Slh0zpeRpT
— Muiris O’Cearbhaill (@muirisoc) June 17, 2023
The silence was broken as the large screen began to play film of the singer and Aslan singing and playing the song ‘Crazy World’.
As the song played and the mourners sang, Dignam’s family and friends walked towards the procession vehicles again and the hearse drove to the private funeral.
The crowd once again applauded the hearse as it drove between the large crowd to where Dignam’s service will take place.
His funeral notice on RIP.ie said: “Modest and down-to-earth, Christy was as comfortable and happy singing at small intimate gigs as he was to packed venues.
“A generous supporter of countless charity events, often turning up at the bedsides of admirers who were ill.
“Christy’s loss leaves a void that will be impossible to fill,” it reads.
The RIP.ie page reminds the public that the family’s home will be private “at all times”.
“He is survived by his beloved wife Kathryn, his darling daughter Kiera, grandchildren Cian, Ava and Jake, son-in-law Darren Moran, sisters and brothers Bernadette, Deirdre, James, Brian, Therese, Jackie and Eddie, extended family, fellow Aslan members, neighbours, friends and all who knew and loved him,” the page reads.
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Nothing but a group of protesters.
@Sun Rise: sure he doesn’t even know the gender of his own child!
@Buster Lawless: Good man Buster, DHR will be delighted that there are other numpties in the country that he can empathise with.
@Paul Linehan: sure why would anyone vote for him? He doesn’t even know the gender of his child! His words.
@Paul Linehan: so that would be the vast majority of the population are all numpties? Thanks for your insight.
@Sun Rise: ff and fg are no better robbing future generations of a future in own country
@Sun Rise: he forgot to mention their policy of free entry to Ireland for every scam immigrant in the world
@Buster Lawless: stick with your jimmy saville ‘jokes’. They really do become you.
Just look, point and laugh at those lefty clowns
@Thomas Sheridan: and sopping all deportations. They’re completely deranged.
@Declan Young: No problem Deco, but a look in the mirror would’ve set the record straight for you earlier in life.
The anti everything, pro nothing mob. Pie in the sky economics.
@Matt D: Well, by that article they are pro quite a lot actually.
@Brian D’Arcy: yes essentially stuff that will bring down the country.
@Matt D: they exist purely for laughing at
A bunch of non binary wokies.
@K O: bunch of incels
They make the students union look like adults.
Still good for a laugh
No to Communism and far left insanity
@Michael Cooney: I believe when you say Communism you mean Leninism i.e. a dictatorship of the proletarian hence meaning that they unequivocally are not for a dictatorship. At least attack them on something that makes sense, not your opinion.
@Brian D’Arcy: But lads like Cooney just throw out overused words and cliches. You shouldn’t confuse them with people who know what they’re talking about.
@Jack Hayes: These people basically want state ownership of everything. They would destroy the country in a month. They are lunatics, thankfully on about 2% support.
@Michael Cooney: but apart of the Democracy and we need to respect that, however nuts they are.
@Brian D’Arcy: all the same clowns
@Brian D’Arcy: You cant win Brian. People have imagined their own reality and are pretty certain of it.
We need a Sinn Fein — People Before Profit coalition to get this country back on track. Rotating taoiseach arrangement between Mary Lou / Richard Boyd Barrett / Paul Murphy. Add in Clare Daly and Mick Wallace if short on numbers
I see SF will now require immigrants to register their presence in Ireland. While FG say there is no such thing as an ‘illegal migrant’
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: you being satirical or serious. Surely not serious? Surely surely not
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: And Sf proposals that EU citizens ” register ” that proposal is even unconditional and really desperate……they are quite literally trying to destroy our country. And don’t forget it took from 1970 to 1997 to have a SF TD take a seat in Dail Eireann under the SF banner, even during the hunger strikes they remained Absolutionist as they are now with there MPs …….
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: wouldn’t that be lovely
@F1rYnpWc: They are asking fellow EU citizens to register too, which is illegal under our constitution…..
@Paul O’Mahoney: and what about northerners who are non-eu?
@Alan: That’s under a different legislation ie the Good Friday Agreement and the terms of Brexit, of course there’s another piece of legislation on the ” common travel ” between the UK and us.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: they could have done that at the last election, but the reality of responsibility set in. Their dictators on what to do rather than leading on how to do.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf:
Why not call on Trump while your at it.
He would blend in well with that lot.
Only decent thing a shinner ever did was starve themselves lol
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: PBP come in with a strong manifesto that will resonate with many. They will take votes, but from who!
A wave of disinterest washes over the nation. Student politics guarantees they’ll continue to enjoy ‘margin of error’ support.
@honey badger: That’s almost poetic , in fact it might actually be.
@honey badger: they exist purely for laughing at, just look at the state of them lol
Why can’t the other parties also steal their proposal to establish a state construction company so we don’t solely rely on the private market, banning foreign funds, and their pro worker policies
@F1rYnpWc: How is a state construction company going to solve anything? It’ll just steal workers from private companies and have a much lower output. They should be focusing on policies to attract construction workers here
@F1rYnpWc: You know the reason why state construction companies do not exist in other countries? Because it’s a terrible idea.
@Alex: China ?
@Brian: If we had the CCP enforce targets for a state construction company, it might work
@Mick Duvanny: LOL.. maybe.. they get stuff built though ! Probably best sticking to the likes of BAM though and pay them 2.5 billion for a hospital.. it’s working out well for us tbf. We should go to BAM with the apple money and ask them ..what can I get for that.. a la D’Unbelievables sketch of the boy in the shop.. how much for wan of them and two of those..
@Brian: The country that now have demolitions over €2 trn every year of property and evicted the owners. And then pumped half of trillion $ equivalent into a company that had a valuation of 500bn and went to the HK stock market with the plan and then brought that market down by 16% in 15mins ….great model.
@F1rYnpWc: its not a good idea
@Paul O’Mahoney: Thanks for that Paul.. your insight, with the economics degree you got off Santa two years ago, is invaluable as always. Your conflating a number of things there..but rather than getting into it with you.. over a comment that was largely intended as a bit of craic.. I’d rather watch the match.
@Brian: The irony that these are all the same people bemoaning BAMs children’s hospital, its a good example of why we get nothing done. imo it’s a great idea and maybe the only way we get any infrastructure. Should have been done 30 years ago unfortunately, but then so should everything else.
Woke Before People??? YOU’RE FIRED!
@Buster Lawless: your pedo jokes have just got YOU fired lol
Like over achieving school boys that never achieved nothing, and a hard days work in their life a bunch of non binary actors.
@Phillip Smyth: Never achieved anything, not never achieved nothing
@Brian D’Arcy: sorry sir, don’t check me please I’ll say it how I like that’s the way it rolls of my tongue sir.
@Brian D’Arcy: You are a Coconut, remove a few constants and vowels and your there it’s a 4 letter word starts with C and ends in t
@Brian D’Arcy: clown
Good God …..48bn in extra spending per their budget proposals add this on top probably 60bn , and with our tax income at 100bn there proposals would add 300bn to the already 230bn national debt….or half a trillion national debt.
Average interest now is 1.5 % or about 3.5 bn pa, if they enter Government at any level even the tax increases won’t cover the gap in fact it would plunge us into a deeper hole that was created during the 2008 crash….our interest rates on international bond market would soar to Greek levels or Afghanistan…..
Pure idealogy, and dangerous ones to boot.
@Paul O’Mahoney: not a brain cell between the looney left lol
@Paul O’Mahoney:
Trust fund clowns
What a surprise, PBP’s manifesto is full of Marxist codswallop. They want to bankrupt our pension system further. They want to further expand Fine Gael’s rent control which caused the housing shortage in the first place. They want abortion up until birth including partial-birth abortions where the baby’s brain is sucked out via a tube. They want to pass the Occupied Territories Bill, which is nothing more than a farcical piece of legislation which rewards acts of terror committed by Hamas. They want to hike up taxes of those who produce the wealth in our society. They want to expand and throw more money at the HSE instead of privatising it and they want to see Ukraine lose the war against their buddies in the Kremlin. The only place this manifesto belongs is in the bin.
Was the loud, blaring white noise not coming from Paul Murphy?
@Brendan Whyte: A simple man with media coverage for a few hours.
Way-hay free money for all!
The pay for nothing brigade.
@Max: just a bunch of losers
Fantasy stuff…
The purge is on what do they actually do.
The country has yet to wake up. But when they do, it’s already too late
Another Political Establishment attacking Rural Ireland. I don’t see them reducing the amount of flights that are coming into or going out of Dublin Airport . Shannon and Cork are there too but they don’t matter….
@Tommy: Boo hoo..the reason why Dublin is what it is is that it’s our Capital City and I say that as a Cork man
@Tommy: In all fairness they want to stop the US military using Shannon so that will make that airport unviable
Antisemitism raises its ugly head yet again in Ireland and PBP leading the charge.
@Billy Joe: Yep
@Billy Joe: don’t forget their tea towel support for the Hamas subhumans
4 day week without loss of pay…..who’s paying for the unworked day?
@Hunt Ley: nobody! It’s about changing the working week and how you change your productivity!
Enough to make the rich and the borgeoisie panic so they must be onto something
@Brian D’Arcy: You want your job seeker benefits raised isn’t it?
@Brian D’Arcy: ” bourgeois ” that made me laugh. Do you mean those that pay taxes and those taxes used to keep up the ” pour” to a standard?
There are poor people in Ireland and perhaps the reason they are is help is being diverted to generational theft….
But let’s blame immigration…
@Brian D’Arcy: deluded lol
They have so many issues including Cows , what cows did we’ll never know,, it reminds of a Joke Billy Connolly had about inner city Glasgow going into the country for the day and a description of Heifers… good times
A clueless bunch of clowns. Basic economics far too difficult for them.
These clowns are waffling on again about leading a left government without FF or FG. Living in cloud cuckoo land.
Vote No1 The Monk!
@Alan Kennedy: hopefully he dilute the shinners vote, Mary looper is in trouble :)
@Paul M Doe: clare daly and the monk!
It’s not like their plans your nuclear fission were stolen. All their proposals are standard fare
These guys are !d!0ts. Never earned money in their life it just appears in the bank every month.
Smell of trust fund hippy off most of them.
@H Woo: Solid reasoning,
Who is their candidate in South Kerry????
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