Christy Moore in Killarney review: 'This is the most important gig of my life'
Christy Moore playing at the Gleneagle INEC, Killarney. Picture: Valerie O'Sullivan
“I’ve been on the road since 1966 but this is the most important gig of my life,” Christy Moore told us as he settled down in Killarney’s INEC on Saturday night.
You’d think a reduced-capacity audience of 200 would make for a whispery, tiptoe-to-your-seats, intimate experience but we need not have feared. It was fun and exuberant.
A Christy Moore concert was the first to be postponed at the venue once the pandemic restrictions were announced in March 2020, and now, 15 months later, here he was, back centre stage where he belongs.
Singer-songwriter Susan O’Neill, traditional singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and showman extraordinaire Jack L completed the line-up.
Unsurprisingly the 200 tickets for the event sold out in just under four minutes when they went on sale on June 10. The gig at the Gleneagle INEC was one of a series of indoor and outdoor pilot events taking place around the country throughout June and July.
Testing wasn't required, but staggered arrival times were organised ahead of the concert’s start and all attendees supplied contact tracing details.
Each pod was allocated a specific arrival time and a pre-allocated table and facemasks were required when arriving at and vacating the venue. Attendees took part in a survey, with the data gathered will be supplied to the Department for research purposes. All attendees were required to have their smartphone switched on and the HSE Covid app installed.
As always, Christy blended the timeless with the bitingly current, from St Brendan’s Voyage to Delerium Tremens, which swept us along the fairways as Christy referenced Golfgate.
He also whisked us back in time as he recalled how just a few miles away from where we were sitting, Christy, Declan Sinnott and Donal Lunny recorded the hugely successful 1984 album Ride On while staying in Muckross.
Opportunities for singalong sessions were back at their brilliant and harmonious best – so much so that if you closed your eyes at one point you could imagine the audience was in its thousands.
Christy approved. “You’re very good, you’re like an Augustinian choir, now,” he told us.
The Co Kildare man also became protective of Kerry's bragging rights when seguing to the Cliffs of Dooneen. “Many people think it’s a Clare song but it’s a Kerry song, by Jack McAuliffe, Ballybunion,” he said.
And even politicians from the county did not escape the night’s – or the performer’s – positivity.
In honour of Kerry TD Norma Foley, who Christy thanked for welcoming him to the Kingdom, the artist changed the lyrics of his anthem Lingo Politico (I Hate Politicians) to “I love politicians”.
And the audience loved Christy – even when he stopped short to announce: “I’m in the wrong key – stall the digger, I’m out of practice.” Not a bit of it - he was as brilliant as ever.
