Even at 12, she knew she would be a rock star
DOLORES O’Riordan stood up in front of her classmates on her first day in Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ, Limerick, and loudly announced: ‘My name is Dolores O’Riordan… I’m going to be a rock star.’
The 12-year-old Ballybricken student was a ‘boisterous, loveable rogue’, according to her school pal Catherina Egan.
The two were ‘very close’, having being seated in class together, after both started a day later than everyone else.
‘On our first day of school we had to stand up in front of the class and introduce ourselves, and say what we wanted to be when we grew up. We also had to do a party piece,’ Ms Egan explained.
‘Dolores stood up and roared out, “My name is Dolores O’Riordan, and I’m going to be a rock star”. She stood up on her chair and belted out, “Tra la la la la, Triangles”.
‘Even on that first day of school, her voice blew me away. She wasn’t shy at all. She was gas, a rogue, a messer – she was a great character. We were good pals. She was wild, but lovely… a loveable rogue.’
Ms Egan recalled one painful day in class. ‘She stuck me in the back with a compass. She did it to make me roar and get me into trouble. She was great craic.’
O’Riordan’s voice got her out of trouble many times. ‘She got away with murder because she won the Slògadh song contest for the school almost every year. She was a soloist in the choir. It was her voice. It was her that won it for us.’
Ms Egan said Dolores was destined to follow a path to performing.
‘She was always writing music and songs in school. One year we got a piano in the main hall, and everyday Dolores would be at it singing songs. We’d all come back from having lunch, and we’d sit around her and listen to her singing.’
Ms Egan said Dolores never forgot her school pals, even after she left Limerick. ‘She would always stop you and give you a hug and be delighted to see you. She’d nearly shout at you from across the street.’
Her friend also revealed Dolores’s nickname from school: ‘She was “Dollar”. That was her star name, what she planned to call herself.’
‘Her voice blew me away’