Singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey is deeply sensitive to the vibrations of the world around him, be it the power of nature, people in pain, the plight of homelessness, or messages from beyond the grave
Damien Dempsey, who is headlining the Sunday Independent’s Rock Against Homelessness in aid of Focus Ireland on February 7 at the 3 Olympia in Dublin, at the Stella cinema in Rathmines. Photo: Frank McGrath
“I get nudges from the other side a good bit,” Damien Dempsey says. For instance, his aunt Betty a few months ago. She was “a lovely woman”, originally from the Liberties in Dublin. At the wake, he and the family sang “a few oul’ sean nós, a few songs as Gaeilge” around the coffin. Near the end of the night, Dempsey looked at his aunt. “I said to her: ‘Give us a sign, Betty.’”
Two days later, the singer-songwriter was in the Dublin mountains with some friends. They had lit a fire, which was going out. Dempsey went on his own to look for more wood. He saw a face lit up in the dark.
