Remembering Dolores: The Girl Who Went To School On A Tractor

The passing of Dolores O’Riordan was a shock to people all around the world. However, no one was more shocked than the natives of Limerick, many of us having connections with her or her family. The depth of mourning in the city could be seen in the queues of thousands that came to pay their respects while her body reposed at Saint Joseph’s Church on Sunday, 21 January.

When I was a child growing up in Limerick, Dolores’ star was on the rise – and as a result, you’d hear story after story about her. That from a young age, she would sing in front of her classmates, her talent recognised from the beginning. That she developed her voice further in St. Joseph’s Choir.
She attended the Laurel Hill Coláiste, the sister school to my own secondary school, Laurel Hill. The teachers spoke very fondly of Dolores. One of the staff recalled the many times she had heard Dolores play and how she had a voice that commanded immediate attention. That was not hard to believe, given the distinctive quality of her voice.

There were funny stories too. Legend has it that on one occasion Dolores was late for her first class of the day. Her excuse was that she had got a lift to school on a tractor. The teacher didn’t believe her – until the tractor drove by the window, that is.
Her songs, and those of The Cranberries, were well known around Limerick, and everyone would sing along proudly to the radio whenever they came on. One of the first songs I ever learnt on guitar was ‘Zombie’, which of course was their biggest hit.
Only recently, listening to Eminem’s new album, I heard the song ‘In Your Head’ and the way he incorporated the sample of ‘Zombie’ into it. I was with my parents in the car at the time, and I paused the song to say how amazing it was to me that the voice of Dolores O’Riordan, whose family home was a mere ten minutes drive from my own house, was on an Eminem track.
Dolores always remained very much a Limerick girl at heart. Anyone who knew her said that she was never as happy or as comfortable as when she returned home to the place she grew up in. As our President Michael D. Higgins said, “she was a star that shone brightly from the very beginning.” She will be missed enormously, especially in the city on the Shannon estuary. The only consolation is that her music lives on…