The late Dolly Parton spoke warmly about some of her Irish connections in a memorable interview with RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline in 2023, recalling an impromptu performance in a Co Kerry pub and her admiration for Sinéad O’Connor.
Speaking to Katie Hannon from Dollywood, Parton looked back on a visit to Co Kerry in 1990, when she ended up singing Coat of Many Colours in the late Páidí Ó Sé’s pub.
Parton was visiting Ireland with her Irish friend Walter Hagan when they decided to stop at the pub.
“I remember that very well,” she told Hannon.
“We just had a ball that night, and they asked me if I’d sing, and of course I did.”
Parton was accompanied on the impromptu performance by musicians Steve Cooney and the late Séamus Begley.
She also revealed that she had held on to a Kerry jersey given to her by Ó Sé that night, and she had kept it framed at her home ever since.
“I have that jersey in a frame, hanging in my basement, which is my recreation room,” she said.
Parton said people would regularly ask about the jersey hanging there.
“I’m very, very proud of that,” she said. “When I brought it home, I put that up on the wall, and it has been there ever since.”
During the same interview, Parton also spoke movingly about Sinéad O’Connor who had died just months earlier.
“I always felt connected to her,” she said.
She described O’Connor as “very, very sweet” and said she had been saddened by her death.
Parton also spoke about her admiration for O’Connor as a singer, saying her experiences could be heard in her music.
“Sometimes that makes the best singers, people that live what they are singing about,” she said.
The wide-ranging Liveline interview also saw Parton discuss her distinctive style and decades of stage costumes, her childhood, and the song Coat of Many Colours.
Listen to Dolly Parton’s full interview with Katie Hannon above.