Older and wiser but no less passionate

WHEN the lights go up at Live at the Marquee on Friday week after Christy Moore has given blood, sweat, and tears to his performance, he will make a beeline for home.

It’s no reflection on his audience — he “feels blessed and privileged” that they want to hear him sing and every concert is a mindful exercise in giving them his best. But home is where his heart is — it’s the safe base to which the 69-year-old can retreat, where he plays the guitar and piano every day and sings in his room. It’s where the dad of three adult children has the company of his wife, Valerie, who he describes as his “best friend” and who has shared a deeply emotional journey with him over their 41 years of marriage. Home is also the base to which he retreated for two years when he had, in his own words, a breakdown at the age of 53. That was 11 years after his heart attack and nine after he became sober.

“During the period of the breakdown I lost the facility to go out, to communicate and I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to play again,” he says.