- Culture
- 20 Feb 19
TOM DUNNE looked the picture of health last September on stage at Féile Classical. Weeks later he was told there was a 70% chance of him dying from a heart condition. Undergoing emergency surgery, he suffered kidney failure and spent six days unconscious in ICU. Now on the road to recovery, he talks family, faith, mortality, morphine and Chris De Burgh with STUART CLARK.
"I wrote an entire six-parter in which you set off on a weird adventure to find each of the Féile Classical acts. Jerry Fish was living Apocalypse Now-style up a river. The Frank & Walters had their own little Corkworld house, like The Beatles in Hard Day’s Night. Liam O Maonlai was doing something strange that I can’t quite remember. I thought it was brilliant at the time, but now upon sober reflection…”
Tom Dunne is telling us about the potentially smash hit TV series he penned whilst dosed up on morphine following the emergency surgery, he underwent last November for a heart condition that nearly cost him his life. His going under the knife came just eight weeks after the aforementioned Trip To Tipp reboot, a sell-out two-day affair that Tom curated, MC-ed and played at with Something Happens.
“We did two shows; I jumped around as usual, got very sweaty and felt absolutely fine afterwards,” the 58-year-old resumes. “I was presenting the bands as well, so they were long days, but my energy levels were normal. Before Féíle, I’d go for a long walk and wouldn’t be the most out of breath person on it. I might have got a bit out of breath carrying a box of CDs to the attic, but no more so than the kids or my wife, Audrey, would have done if I’d been lazy and made them carry a box of CDs up the stairs.”