Fine night at Cork Opera House as Christy Moore pays tribute to Don O'Leary
Christy Moore playing at the Cork Life Centre concert in Cork Opera House. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
In ways, every Christy Moore concert is special. But clearly, some are more special than others, as evidenced by the performance at Cork Opera House on Sunday that raised funds for Cork Life Centre and also acted as a tribute to that alternative educational establishment’s director, Don O’Leary.
On a night with some weighty issues to the fore, Moore rolled out a greatest hits set where the serious songs bristled with even more significance than usual, but it also felt just as important to sing along with the fun stuff.
Moore and O’Leary had first met in the late 1980s at the ‘Portlaoise Hilton’, where the Corkman was in the midst of serving three years of a five-year sentence for IRA membership. Now 64, and suffering from stage-four lung cancer, O’Leary has spent the past 16 years of his life driving the centre on Sunday’s Well that provides an education for young people not suited to mainstream schools.
Before the concert had begun, a number of students had given moving accounts of the warm welcome and life-changing experience provided by O’Leary and his colleagues. As he received the cheque for €23,000 that the gig had raised, the Ballyphehane man assured the capacity crowd at the Opera House that he and his team would be back to work on Monday, and back in communication with the Dept of Education trying to secure the funding that would allow the centre to continue on.
For Moore, the concert also provided a fine excuse to reveal the importance of Cork to his repertoire. He sung songs by the likes of local bards John Spillane, Jimmy MacCarthy, and Patrick Galvin; told us how Jimmy Crowley taught him ‘Johnny Jump Up’ on an epic journey through West Cork; and recalled momentous gigs he did on Leeside with Planxty (City Hall, 1972) and Moving Hearts (Connolly Hall, 1982).
Even his ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’ was inspired by accounts of the Spanish Civil War from Michael O’Riordan, a man raised in a house just across the river from the Opera House. That song allowed Moore to make links to the war in Ukraine and the ongoing fight against fascism, apt timing on a weekend when members of the modern version of the International Brigade were on social media appealing for support in their struggle against the Russians.
The Cork crowd also got the first live rendition of a new Lisdoonvarna-esque tune dedicated to their city, mentioning a host of local heroes, as well as the English Market, the Marquee, and this newspaper.
Music with meaning, and music as a celebration of life. An extra-special night indeed.
- Christy Moore plays Live At The Marquee in Cork, on Saturday, June 17, 2023
