Former Eurovision star Cahal Dunne's tribute to Cork and Uncle Jack

Singer Cahal Dunne is a ‘Happy Man’ as he talks to me about his new song about his beloved Cork, about his Eurovision experience, and how, after 47 rejections, he finally landed a book deal.

He is humming the tune of his new song, Cork My Home, as we sit down with a coffee. The catchy ditty has a lovely melody.

“Melodies are my strength,” says Cahal. “I’d love the song to catch on in Cork. It would be a nice coda to my career.”

Charm is another strength of his.

“Other than my cousins, you are the first Dunne I’ve spoken to since I came home to Cork this time,” says Cahal. “Isn’t that something? In the USA, most Dunnes spell their name without an ‘e’.”

After moving to the U.S, Cahal dropped the ‘t’ from his Christian name. He explains why.

“An MC introduced me in Cleveland one night, saying, ‘Let’s have a warm Cleveland welcome for Shittle Dooney!’ That’s when I dropped the ‘t’ out of Cathal!”

Living in Pittsburgh now with his wife Kathleen and their son Ryan, does he still consider Cork his home?

“We lived on the back Douglas Road,” says Cahal, who emigrated to the USA in 1983 when there was a recession here.

“My dad, a teacher, became the principal of the Cork School of Commerce. He came to the National Song Contest as my guest. Back then, all the counties voted for their favourite song. I much preferred that method.”

Cahal qualified and came fifth for Ireland in Israel in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, singing his self-penned song Happy Man.

Was dad impressed?

“He was!” says Cahal, laughing.

Mr Dunne Snr had his own way of celebrating.

“He declared a half-day off for the college students the day after I won the National Song Competition in 1979,” says Cahal. “It was his way of saying ‘well done!”

Cahal’s uncle, Jack Lynch, was taoiseach at the time. He also said ‘well done’ after his talented nephew was chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision.

“I was in the RTÉ green room surrounded by well-wishers when I felt a tap on my shoulder,” recalls Cahal.

“We were having a celebration when suddenly ‘the suits’ pulled me away. It was Jack Lynch on the phone. Speaking in Irish he said, ‘Fair play to you, boy. Maureen and I are delighted with you’. He was ringing to congratulate me.”

Cahal went to Jerusalem for the annual song contest that year.

“I had a brandy before I went on!” he recalls. “I was totally nervous, to be honest with you. I knew I was there on behalf of Ireland. If I made a balls of it, I’d have to the Israeli army!”

Cahal didn’t make a balls of it. He came fifth with 80 points and returned to a rapturous welcome at Dublin Airport. The host country won the competition that year.

“There were about 200 people waiting to greet us,” says Cahal. “That was beautiful. Fair play to the Dubs!”

Cahal’s clan were happy for their man too.

“They were all delighted for me,” he says.

Jack, a star sportsman in his younger days, must have been proud of him too?

“I think I could have been a disappointment to my Uncle Jack, who was a GAA fanatic and who was a dual player with the Cork senior hurling and football teams.” smiles Cahal.

“I was never sporty. Apart from a sister of mine who played camogie, none of us were any good at sport.

“In the 1960s, studying music was akin to studying ballet. Jack didn’t approve!”

As a child in Cork’s Southside, Cahal re the taoiseach’s stately car that pulled up to the family home every Christmas.

“I didn’t realise who Jack really was,” he says. “I just knew that he was important, that he was in the paper and on TV. Mum would show us the papers.

“Security men armed with machine guns drove in the car with Jack.”

Cahal knew that his uncle was a decent man.

“He gave each of us a half crown every time he came to visit. He enjoyed a chat and a cuppa with mum before he went on his way.”

Cahal says 1979 was a wonderful year for him and for his career.

“Then things went downhill,” he says. “By the time I had my 15 minutes of fame, the country was already teetering.”

He decided to go on his way to the USA.

“People here simply didn’t have the money,” says Cahal. “I had two choices - go back teaching and do the music part-time, or leave.”

He left.

In Ireland, it was a claim to fame to be related to Jack Lynch, who stood down as taoiseach later in 1979.

However, in Irish-America, Cahal discovered this was a black mark.

Why?

“There was a lot of hostility towards Jack there,” says Cahal. “In Ireland, it was the era of the hunger strikers. Jack had been the leader of a party that in the eyes of Irish Americans were doing nothing regarding The Troubles.”

This attitude was even costly to Cahal’s career.

“I’d turn up to perform a concert to discover the gig was cancelled when they found out who I was,” he says. “I was often ‘blackballed’.”

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Cahal adapted and performed outside of the Irish-American circuit.

“I built a career as a singer and as a storyteller,” says Cahal. “And I told a few jokes along the way.”

His performances went down well.

“I got work in Florida through agents, where I also have a home. I entertained the ‘snowbirds’ who visited Florida in the winter.”

He built a loving relationship too.

“My wife Kathleen is the true love of my life,” says Cahal.

“Together with her son Shaun from her first marriage and our son Ryan, we are a happy family.”

Cahal has many strings to his bow. As well as his new song, with the video shot in Fitzgerald’s Park the weekend before last, he has a new book out, a romantic novel.

“My first book in 2013, Put Your Rosary Beads Away Ma, was a fictionalised of my music experiences growing up in Cork,” he says.

What is his new romantic novel, Athenry, about?

“It is about the famine and the famine ships that has a love story weaved through it,” says Cahal.

“I researched the famine in depth, and I wrote Athenry during Lockdown.

Cahal must be a determined man to receive 47 rejections for the book until he got the good news from Mercier Press?

“I’ve been told no all my life,” he says.

He’s been told yes too.

“I visualised the book as a screenplay and now there is interest in the possibility of making Athenry, with my composition Liam’s Air, into a film.

“Noel Pearson called me saying he loved the book and would like to do a mini-series if it sells. I sell the books at my shows.”

Cahal is always happy to come back to Cork, to stroll around Shandon and to entertain the masses.

“I come back here every August to do a concert,” he says.

“That makes me happy.”

In the prime of his life, in good health, with a new song and a new book in the offing, Cahal is indeed a ‘Happy Man’.

“And I think Cork My Home is a fitting legacy for Jack Lynch,” he says.

He wouldn’t dowtcha, boy!”