Live Report: Damien Dempsey at the Iveagh Gardens

Damien Dempsey hasn’t had the easiest time of it of late. “I was in the horrors when I wrote that,” he recently confessed to Hot Press, speaking about his new album Soulsun. “I’m still fighting my mind. The demons come to me,” he said. He must have felt some vindication then when its title track got a big reception from an Iveagh Gardens crowd assembled for “the singsong of the summer,” as Damo put it.

Unfortunately for the Donaghmede native, once mental troubles were conquered then came physical troubles. “I’m a bit tender my friends, I haven’t played in four months, be gentle,” he requests, having had to cancel a string of shows due to surgery for allergic rhinitis. “I paid for an Al Pacino nose and got a Danny DeVito nose!” he laughed.

Tender he may have been but you wouldn’t have thought it from Damo’s performance as any cares he had were thoroughly sang away. He speaks a lot about the healing power of song and that’s easily understandable after attending one of his gigs - each big chorus releases dopamine hit after dopamine hit as Damo enthusiastically jabs the mic toward the crowd.

‘Apple of My Eye’ and ‘Rocky Road to Dublin’ were early highlights, ‘Colony’ as powerful and inspiring as ever but it was the sight of strangers linking arms and swaying to closer ‘It’s All Good’ that summed it up. The songs followed the fans spilling out onto Harcourt Street, leaving it impossible to keep the smile off your face.