{"id":299042,"date":"2026-02-15T07:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299042\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T07:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:56:08","slug":"its-beginning-to-sink-in-this-goodbye-is-a-bigger-deal-than-i-thought-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299042\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s beginning to sink in, this goodbye is a bigger deal than I thought\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind her blue front door, in Dublin\u2019s Harold\u2019s Cross<\/a>, Mary Black<\/a> sits in an armchair recalling the twists and turns of her past. She\u2019s been looking back a lot lately, poring through her extensive songbook, figuring out the set list for her upcoming Sl\u00e1n tour, a final goodbye to fans. <\/p>\n

The high-ceilinged extension is spacious and bright, full of art and musical instruments \u2013 including the as yet untouched mandolin she was given for Christmas by her husband and manager Joe O\u2019Reilly. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s in the kitchen making coffee while Black points to a \u2018seomra\u2019 in the garden built years ago so her three grown-up children \u2013 engineer Conor, The Coronas frontman Danny O\u2019Reilly<\/a> and the singer songwriter known as R\u00f3is\u00edn O<\/a> \u2013 could study for exams. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure much studying got done in there,\u201d she smiles, as Blue, the family\u2019s deaf and blind Jack Russell, potters about. \u201cA great old dog, never any trouble. She can\u2019t even go for long walks any more, she sleeps mostly now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Age and the passing of time looms large over our conversation. It\u2019s more than 40 years since the release of Mary Black, her first solo album in 1983. Now, Black has got the \u2018urge for going\u2019, as she sings in her captivating cover of that Joni Mitchell song. She said goodbye to international fans with The Last Call tour across United States, Japan and Europe a decade ago. This will be her last Irish tour. Is it an emotional time? <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it is. I\u2019ve had moments where I see myself taking that bow for the last time and I get emotional thinking about it. It\u2019s been such a huge part of my life … I know it\u2019s the end of an era.\u201d <\/p>\n

She has been surprised by the clamour for tickets, which meant they had to put on more gigs than expected \u2013 including an extra date at the National Stadium. <\/p>\n

\u201cThree Vicar Streets. Three Olympias. We usually only do one of each. It\u2019s beginning to sink in that, Jesus, this is a bigger deal than I thought. It means something to people, the memories of the music. You know, even if you think back on a song when you were 10, you remember where you were, what holiday you were on … People come to me, saying, \u2018I lost my husband, and that song helped me coming through the tough times,\u2019 … the amount of people who have written to me and said those kinds of things. It\u2019s the music. Music is healing. It\u2019s healing for me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, she knows it\u2019s the right time to leave touring behind. \u201cPeople think you just walk on stage and do two hours, but there\u2019s also the build-up to it, there\u2019s rehearsals, there\u2019s me having to get my voice back in shape. I take it very seriously. I do exercises because if I don\u2019t my voice won\u2019t be good enough. It\u2019s still not as good as it used to be, but with the songs I have and the arrangements and my amazing band it\u2019s a great night. But you have to work towards that and it hangs over you for a while before you do the tour. So last year, I just said, \u2018It\u2019s time now.\u2019 I turned 70. It was a milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary Black performs in Brussels in April 2009. Photograph: Didier Messens\/Redferns <\/p>\n

She celebrated that milestone birthday last May with a party at home. Black does not look 70. \u201cI work at it,\u201d she laughs when I tell her how great she looks. Later, she and O\u2019Reilly, who met 51 years ago, will head to their twice-weekly reformer Pilates session. She had her hair blow dried that morning; her acrylic nails are a regular indulgence. \u201cThat\u2019s only to stop me biting them … otherwise I bite them right down to the quick, it\u2019s bad.\u201d <\/p>\n

The couple have homes in Dingle<\/a> and in northern Spain. She points out that while the nails cost her \u20ac60 in Dublin, the exact same treatment in Spain costs only \u20ac20. She\u2019s elegant in black trousers, a sleeveless black jumper and monochrome blouse. Lately, she\u2019s been shopping for a dress to wear for R\u00f3is\u00edn\u2019s wedding in September and is busy with her four beloved granddaughters \u2013 especially the two youngest ones, who arrived within a couple of weeks of each other last year.<\/p>\n

Mary Black, if we bothered with such notions in Ireland, is a national treasure. For more than four decades, she has been one of the defining voices of Irish music. The Black siblings grew up in a tenement house in Charlemont Street in Dublin\u2019s inner city, two girls and three boys, steeped in traditional music. Their mother Patty, a passionate singer, came from Dublin\u2019s Liberties, their father Kevin, a multi-instrumentalist, from Rathlin Island, Co Antrim. By the age of 12, encouraged and mentored by her older brother Shay, she already had a healthy collection of songs to perform at sessions around the kitchen table. By 14 she was singing in the pubs and clubs of the capital, a regular in Slattery\u2019s on Capel Street.<\/p>\n

Her professional career began in the band General Humbert and she sang later with De Dannan before stepping into a solo career. Albums such as By The Time It Gets Dark, No Frontiers and Babes in the Wood revealed an artist who could combine her American singer-songwriter influences \u2013 Billie Holiday and Sandy Denny were early muses \u2013 with Irish tunes, bringing writers like Jimmy MacCarthy and Noel Brazil to wider acclaim. Listening back to her music in preparation for this interview, what stands out is the outstanding clarity of her voice. Her song interpretations are emotionally intelligent, and always unforced. Her voice is transporting, she feels every word. <\/p>\n

Like Christy Moore, Black has been the soundtrack to so many Irish lives. Even if you aren\u2019t an ardent fan, you are familiar with songs like Katie and No Frontiers, you instantly recognise Carolina Rua and Song for Ireland or Past The Point of Rescue. You definitely did not manage to escape hearing A Woman\u2019s Heart. <\/p>\n

I just feel so grateful. And thanking them is going to be hard. What do you say? How do you say it? How do you show it?<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Mary Black on saying goodbye to her fans<\/p>\n

I love the story of how that song came to be the title track on the all-female record, the biggest selling Irish album of all time. \u201cEleanor [McEvoy] had just written it and she was singing it backstage, she was in my band and only in her 20s, I heard her playing this song and thought it was brilliant.\u201d But the record company thought McEvoy wasn\u2019t well established enough to sing the song on the album. \u201cSo I said I\u2019d do a duet with her,\u201d recalls Black. The song and the album \u2013 featuring the likes of Shannon Shannon, Dolores Keane and Mary\u2019s sister Frances Black \u2013 the senator and activist, took off. <\/p>\n

In 1989, the huge success of the No Frontiers album made her name on the international circuit. Black has spoken a lot over the years of how difficult she found it constantly touring all over the world, the guilt of being away from her children and husband \u2013 Joe always stayed behind to look after the family. \u201cLeaving my kids when they were younger wasn\u2019t easy. There was hardship in that.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Danny Harle: \u2018When some people try to treat me like a pop star, that makes me uncomfortable\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She has also been open about the worst times in her life. She experienced postnatal depression<\/a> and later, at the height of her career in the mid 1990s, she suffered with what she terms \u201cordinary depression\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the feeling of not having anything worthwhile to say. I just kind of stopped talking, and there was just this terrible darkness, you know? The second time around, I knew immediately that I needed to go for help. That\u2019s why I talk about it, to encourage people to go for help.\u201d <\/p>\n

She\u2019s not keen to go into details, but within her band at the time she felt redundant, \u201cstupid\u201d, as though she had nothing to offer. \u201cI felt I wasn\u2019t really good at anything I did, it was a confidence thing. I felt I didn\u2019t have anything interesting to say to anybody. Even in my introductions to songs on stage, I just lost the ability to talk, that was part of how it affected me.\u201d She got help, and, supported by her husband, found a way through that difficult time. While she sometimes still has \u201cfleeting\u201d moments of darkness, she says happily that her mental health has been \u201cvery good\u201d for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

Lately, as she looks back, she\u2019s been texting Jimmy MacCarthy who in turn has been appraising his own back catalogue. The prolific songwriter will be among the guest performers during the Sl\u00e1n tour, along with McEvoy and others. She shows me a text she just got from him. \u201cThe way you inhabit and sing these songs is deep and profound … my pen and your voice may be older but we still have what really counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary Black: ‘Leaving my kids when they were younger wasn\u2019t easy. There was hardship in that.’ Photograph: Glen Bollard <\/p>\n

Part of what really counts is that relationship with her audience. The connection she has with \u201cour little community\u201d is real. Over the years she has made friends with some of her fans, women she\u2019s known for decades, who have visited her home. Younger generations have discovered her too: at every Mary Black gig there are girls singing Bright Blue Rose at the top of their voices. \u201cNo Frontiers, Katie, all those songs mean something to their lives. They are happy memories, they come and they have a ball. And then there\u2019s the older people like myself, but they get emotional in a different kind of way.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018For hundreds of millions of people on TikTok, Jeff Buckley is still alive\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She thinks about how she will feel saying goodbye to them all. \u201cI just feel so grateful. And thanking them is going to be hard. What do you say? How do you say it? How do you show it? And if you\u2019re singing, you can\u2019t be crying all the time, because that doesn\u2019t work. I\u2019ll have to put the blinkers on and just get on with it and think, \u2018It\u2019s just another gig,\u2019 which it will be until the very last one, which is in Vicar Street on the 13th of June. That\u2019ll be the toughest one. But look, it doesn\u2019t mean I am never going to sing again. I might get up with Danny with his band, or with R\u00f3is\u00edn, and sing a song. I have to try and say that to myself. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019ll never be on a stage again. But the touring is finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a change, but you\u2019re always afraid. I mean, when people retire they always say, \u2018Oh, stay busy.\u2019 And we do have a busy life, we\u2019re active, we have lots of energy in us, we want to have time to enjoy the next stage.\u201d <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a mandolin waiting to be played, family holidays planned \u2013 a villa booked in Croatia for the children, their partners and the grandchildren. There\u2019s a skiing trip in the offing, although she\u2019s not sure whether she will ski again, after being knocked down by a snowboarder last year. \u201cIt was frightening,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

On that holiday, R\u00f3is\u00edn got up to sing a new song, Magic, in a bar in the French Alps. To Black\u2019s surprise, it was a song about her. As we say our goodbyes, I ask Black to send me the song. It arrives by text as I\u2019m in the back of a taxi going home. The song has me in tears after a few lines, so I can only imagine what it must do to Mary Black. Listening to the song, it feels like something coming full circle, a daughter paying grateful homage to the extraordinary life and career of a mother, a woman, an artist who is about to take her final bow. The end of an era, indeed.<\/p>\n

The Sl\u00e1n tour begins at the National Stadium on May 26th and continues until June 10th. Magic by R\u00f3is\u00edn O is out on March 6th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind her blue front door, in Dublin\u2019s Harold\u2019s Cross, Mary Black sits in an armchair recalling the twists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141833,16088,68036,42,410,43,141834,40,38,41,39,976],"class_list":{"0":"post-299042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-billie-holiday","9":"tag-dingle","10":"tag-harold-s-cross","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sharon-shannon","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-weekendreview"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}