Val Doonican performing in Waterford's Olympia Ballroom in the mid '60s
The Passage Road native, who became a household name in both Ireland and the UK during his 60-year career, died peacefully at a nursing home in Buckinghamshire, UK, last Wednesday.
His daughter Sarah told the press that her father had been “fit as a flea” up until his death. “It was just old age, I’m afraid – the batteries ran out”, she commented,
Michael Valentine ‘Val’ Doonican was the youngest of eight children born to Agnes (née Kavanagh) and John Doonican, on February 3rd, 1927.
They lived at Passage Road and Val attended De La Salle School until the age of 14, when his father passed away from cancer and he left to work in an orange box factory to supplement the family’s income.
Having written music from a very young age and formed a singing group with his friends when he was just 10, Doonican began performing in the early 1950s. He featured on RTÉ radio and appeared in the first-ever television broadcast from Waterford.
He moved to England in 1951 to join Irish quartet The Four Ramblers and so began a career that would see him have five successive top 10 albums in the UK Album Chart in the 1960s and accumulate millions of fans through his own TV show.
Doonican was persuaded to launch a solo career by the late songwriter Anthony Newley, whom he supported on a tour in the early 60s.
His career really took off when he was booked to appear on ‘Sunday Night at the Palladium’ in 1963, after which the BBC offered him his own show, ‘The Val Doonican Show’, which ran from 1965 until 1986 and included 25 highly popular Christmas specials. The show, which became a national institution, launched countless artists’ careers in the 60s and 70s.
Doonican’s was a constant name on the UK Singles Chart between 1964 and 1973 with a string of hits that included ‘Walk Tall’, ‘The Special Years’ and ‘What Would I Be’.
He also performed the theme song of the film ‘Ring of Bright Water’ and had a string of comic songs, such as ‘O’Rafferty’s Motorcar’, ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’ and ‘Delany’s Donkey’.
He retired from performing in 2009 and concentrated on watercolour painting, at which he also excelled.
In a joint celebration with Brendan Bowyer in June 2011, Val Doonican was awarded the Freedom of Waterford City, an event which was attended by many of his Waterford relations; among them his surviving siblings Nellie Dwan and Una Jackman and his nephew, well-known local photographer Paddy Dwan.
Doonican is survived by his wife Lynn, daughters Sarah and Fiona and grandchildren Bethany and Scott.
Numerous tributes to the late performer have been made in recent days. Irish entertainer Roy Walker, whose career Doonican helped to launch on his TV show, told the BBC that Doonican was “an example to everybody”.
“The way he conducted himself he was the consummate professional. In the early days I was his opening comedian and he was one of the most generous people on stage.
“He would go out and do 10 minutes at the top of the show and introduce you – even though you were nobody – as his ‘very special guest’. He was a joy to be with, a pleasure to work with and one of the all-time good guys in showbusiness.”
Sir Bruce Forsyth described Doonican as a “one-off”. He also told the BBC: “He was just a lovely guy. What you saw is what you got, this is a very sad day.”
Forsyth added: “He had this way of relaxing his co-stars and his audience and that went right through the screens into your homes. It’s not simple to do what he did. To be relaxed as he was is an art. You can’t go in front of millions of people on television and be that relaxed and that good.”
Daniel O’Donnell said Doonican’s passing was a “very sad day for the music industry…
“The first time I met him it was lovely and I was certainly not disappointed from what I had built up in my mind of what he might be like. He had a great voice and had the big hits with the songs we remember but there were also the funny songs that captured people’s imaginations too. He certainly was able to entertain in the widest possible sense.”
Broadcaster Gay Byrne said Doonican had a “true charm about him…with something of Perry Como/Bing Crosby-style about his singing”.
Tales of the Tellurians
John O’ Connor;
‘Farewell to a Legend’
The death of Val Doonican last week marked the end of an era in which a proud son of Waterford scaled the heights of the international entertainment world.
To put Val’s success in perspective for younger readers it would be fair to say that for over 20 years on British television he was the equivalent of Ant and Dec, Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton all rolled into one.
A genuinely nice man and always self-effacing, he topped the BBC1 ratings from 1964 to 1986 with most of the world’s top singers and musicians as his guests.
And, as well as ruling the roost in television pulling in up to 20 million viewers per show, Val was a superb recording artiste selling millions of records in Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia where he toured extensively.
His 1967 million selling No 1 LP, ‘Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently’, is considered by many to be one of his finest albums and, when it was released, people like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Andy Williams acknowledged him as their peer.
Of all the British based singers, only Matt Munroe was held in similar esteem on the other side of the Atlantic.
Born Michael Valentine Doonican in Waterford on February 3rd 1927, he was the youngest of eight children.
During his career, he recorded over 50 albums and among his hit singles were ‘Walk Tall’, ‘The Special Years’, ‘Elusive Butterfly’ and ‘What Would I Be’.
Many people believe, this writer included, that if he had never diversified from singing into a radio and television presenter, his rare voice would surely have taken him to the very pinnacle of the international recording industry and kept him there.
And while all this was going on, Val Doonican never forgot his Waterford roots and repeatedly spoke about his native city as the odd Waterford vowel and rolled ‘r’ continued to punctuate his speech!
He was an excellent artist, specialising in water colours, and his paintings are much sought after. His three entertaining memoirs/autobiographies were best sellers.
It wasn’t always popular to be Irish in Britain and during the bleak years of the 1970s and 80s Val Doonican was one of a handful of Irish celebrities who did a lot to keep public opinion balanced.
In 2009, Val was named Grand Marshall of the city’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and, two years later, he was honoured with the official Freedom of the City.
While he continued to play occasional concerts around the world, Val’s last big London concert was in 2008 when he headlined a special, sell-out show at The London Palladium to celebrate his 60th year in the business.
Some of the biggest names in the entertainment world queued up to salute Val and proceeds from the sell-out show went to the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund of which Queen Elizabeth II is Patron.
To his wife, daughters and grandchildren and to his many relatives in Waterford, I offer my sincere sympathies
