{"id":15832,"date":"2020-07-23T18:41:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T22:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=15832"},"modified":"2020-07-24T08:45:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T12:45:22","slug":"val-doonican-the-county-waterford-sinatra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=15832","title":{"rendered":"Val Doonican – The County Waterford Sinatra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Each week we will highlight one artist from Paddy McCarthy\u2019s regular Music And Entertainment Guide for your reading pleasure. To read the full weekly guide, visit our ePaper<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you can see this week in our Music Page I like to give you the inside scoop on old and new entertainment with most of it Irish connected. Here we go with a man that was bigger than Frank Sinatra in England and Ireland and came all the way from Waterford, Ireland. His name is Val Donnican. <\/p>\n

Doonican was born on 3 February 1927 in\u00a0Waterford, Ireland the youngest of the eight children of Agnes (n\u00e9e Kavanagh) and John Doonican. He was from a musical family and played in his school band from the age of six In 1941 when he was a teenager his father died, so he had to leave\u00a0De La Salle College Waterford, to get factory jobs fabricating steel and making orange and grapefruit boxes <\/p>\n

He began to perform in his hometown, often with his friend Bruce Clarke, and they had their first professional engagement as a duo in 1947. Doonican appeared in a summer season at\u00a0Courtown Harbor, County Wexford. <\/p>\n

He soon featured on Irish radio, sometimes with Clarke, and appeared in Waterford’s first-ever television broadcast. Then he played the drums in a band on a tour through Ireland.<\/p>\n

An Irish singer of\u00a0traditional pop,\u00a0easy listening, and\u00a0novelty songs, who was noted for his warm and relaxed style he found popular success, especially in the United Kingdom where he had five successive\u00a0Top 10\u00a0albums in the 1960s as well as several hits on the\u00a0UK Singles Chart, including “If the Whole World Stopped Lovin'”, “Walk Tall” and “Elusive Butterfly”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Val Doonican Show, which featured his singing and a variety of guests, had a long and successful run on\u00a0BBC Television\u00a0from 1965 to 1986, and Doonican won the\u00a0Variety Club of Great Britain’s BBC-TV Personality of the Year award three times. <\/p>\n

Doonican died at a nursing home in\u00a0Buckinghamshire\u00a0on 1 July 2015, aged 88 His daughter Sarah told\u00a0The Guardian: “Until 87, he was as fit as a flea. It was just old age, I’m afraid\u00a0\u2014 the batteries ran out. RIP.<\/p>\n

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