Daniel’s mother was never far from mind on first Christmas without her

Daniel O’Donnell has spoken movingly of how he missed his mother Julia who was absent from her favourite chair when the family returned home from Christmas midnight Mass.

But he also got an opportunity to share in a Christmas Day engagement when wife Majella’s daughter Siobhan accepted a marriage proposal from boyfriend Gavin.

Daniel, speaking for the first time about his Christmas and New Year, said: “Our Christmas certainly was different this year as it was our first year without my mother. Even though she wasn’t there she was never far from all of our minds and we talked about her often.”