Tom Dunne: 2023 was a year divided by the sadness of July 26
Sinéad O'Connor, The Beatles and U2 feature in Tom Dunne's wrap of 2023. Pictures: Terry O'Neill/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Apple Corps Ltd; and Ronda Churchill / AFP via Getty Images
The past year was for me, and I suspect for many music fans, divided into the days before July 26, and the days after it. Before it, my speakers were alive with new music from Grian Chatten, CMAT, The National and Gabriels. But after July 26 only one name featured: Sinead O’Connor.
It makes for a startling sight on my playlists. From July 26 until August 4, when Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ marked a return to some kind of normality, it is just the same name, over and over again: Sinead, Sinead, Sinead.
We lost other giants of Irish music in 2023: Johnny Fean from Horslips, Mark Sheehan from The Script, Christy Dignam and Shane MacGowan, but for many of us, Sinead had, through her music, her spirit and her fragile vulnerability, worked her way into our hearts like none other.
A day does not go past that I don’t ask: how can she possibly be gone? But, difficult as they can be to appreciate against the enormity of that loss, there were beautiful moments in 2023. Some happenings, I could not get to but read the reviews and stifled my regret. Others, thankfully, I was able to appreciate in person.
Music still exerts a magic power and some of our finest moments are spent with friends, in thrall to the greatest talents of our age. So, some highlights.
I did not see this coming. I was called to the Universal offices, asked to sign an NDA and positioned in front of a screen. They showed me the 12-minute “making of” video and then played the song itself. It was magical beyond my wildest dreams. Tears were shed.
There is much to ponder on here, the use of AI, how the track compares with golden-era Beatles but what there is no escaping, is the simple beauty of John Lennon’s voice.
With drummer Charlie Watts gone, their advancing years etc, if the Stones hung up their skinny jeans no one would have been surprised. But to somehow find the mojo to write Sweet Sounds of Heaven was truly amazing. And tours in 2024? How can this even be?
Costello is a god to me. The run of albums to Imperial Bedroom are amongst my favourites of all time. To see him, to hear him, up close and personal was spectacular. I could ruin the joke about how his father learned to speak Spanish, but it would be cruel as he is returning to do this show in 2024. Trust me though, it’s a good one!
It was a good year, in many ways, for all things Irish. From “there goes that dream” at the Oscars, to CMAT on Graham Norton, Lankum’s False Lankum sweeping all before it, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize win, the success of Bad Sister and the continued rise of Sharon Horgan, Paul Mescal, the Trinity College gigs, Evan Ferguson, Katie Taylor, Donegal being voted “4th Best Region in the World” while the Guardian remarked that it would “hard to find another currently existing society better than…” Skerries. Plus: Stephen Cluxton “un-retired” at 42! The future is so bright, shades remain mandatory.
A marriage made in heaven. Apart from his beautiful voice and incredible talent, one of John’s most endearing characteristics is his simple love of music. It was his championing of Abba that at last gave me the confidence to tell others how I felt, but Patsy Cline is another level completely.
It’s a cliché to say they don’t write songs like these anymore but its true. ‘I Fall to Pieces’, ‘Crazy’, ‘Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray’, ‘Your Cheating Heart’. Tales of everyday heartache and utter devastation.
The band that got its break playing the Arcadia in Cork continue to set the bar high for all who come in their wake. I got to see the second show. I cried, I laughed, I sang along. It was jaw-dropping.
I can’t think of a single band who have remained so engaged, so creatively committed and so basically wonderful for so long. ‘Atomic City’, performed against the backdrop of a virtual Las Vegas as it dissolved into desert and the band segued in ‘Streets have no Name’ will live with me ‘til MUFC become good again. Yes, as long as that.
Journey on, Sinead.
