I’VE LOST THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
Rocker boyfriend tells of his heartache over Cranberries star’s death
DOLORES O’riordan’s boyfriend told of his agony at her death yesterday and said: “My heart is broken.”
Musician Ole Koretsky – her bandmate in D.A.R.K. – had been going out with The Cranberries star since 2015.
Ole said: “My friend, partner, and the love of my life is gone. My heart is broken and it is beyond repair. I miss her so much.”
Linger singer Dolores, 46, was found dead in her hotel room in London on Monday.
A poignant final Instagram picture showed the star, from Ballybricken, Co Limerick, and Ole
TRAGIC Dolores O’riordan found peace and tranquility in her latter years in a remote Canadian town.
During her 20-year marriage to tour manager Don Burton, the Cranberries star split her time between Ireland and Buckhorn, Ontario – a 90-minute drive from Toronto.
The family moved there in 2009 and stayed until Dolores and Don’s divorce in 2014.
And it was there she was able to find solace, away from the rigours of constant touring and recording which had taken a toll on her mental health.
With a population of around 5,000, it would prove to be a safe haven for Dolores in the second half of her life.
One of her final tweets, before her untimely death in London on Monday, revealed she was travelling back to Buckhorn yet again to be with family.
And she had such affection for the Peterborough she even described herself as “half a Canuck”.
The Limerick native often spoke of how she enjoyed life in Ontario and the sheer vastness of Canada.
She said: “You can really get lost here and I like that.
“The seasons are so dramatic – from the snow in the winter to the beauty of the autumn, the colours of the leaves falling – so I have a piano outside my window and sometimes I start off there with ideas, just using nature as a backdrop.”
That backdrop proved to be inspiration for two of her solo albums. The artwork for her second release, No Baggage, saw Dolores pose on Big Bald Lake where she and Burton bought their luxury getaway cottage.
The album saw the singer explore some dark parts of her mind.
She said at the time: “I kind of used this album as a way to get at all of my fears, my inhibitions, my demons, my weaknesses, my fragilities.
“I went through a really weird stage when we got really big. I really felt pressure to be accepted by the posh people. Over the years, I just got tired of trying to fit in, or trying to be accepted or trying to please or trying to meet the expectations that I thought were there of people when they met me.”
And Dolores’ affection for her newfound home was a bond that was mutual with locals. Jay Nutt, former owner of Nuttshell Next Door Cafe in Lakefield, Ontario, said the singer was “fabulous” to deal with. He told the Irish Mirror: “We would frequently see her and her kids in the cafe after she would collect them from school. She was a joy to deal with.
“We had a couple of younger staff who knew who she was right off the bat when she came in, but we tried to treat her as just another customer and to make her feel at home. She was always very engaging and charming and she interacted equally with whoever was serving her, whether that was me as the owner or any of the staff.
“In our experience she was always very nice and down to earth. It was very surprising and saddening to see the news on Monday. From talking to people in the area, the overall feeling after the news broke was a sense of loss.
“She was someone who was not just a celebrity, but a real person as well and I think in some ways that’s what she loved about the area.
“When she was around here she
We would see her and her kids in the cafe.. she was a joy to deal with JAY NUTT BUCKHORN, ONTARIO, YESTERDAY
was ‘Dolores who was in for a coffee’ or ‘Dolores stopping to buy apples’ and the rest of it was just secondary.
“Peterborough as an area has a strong affinity for its Irish heritage and I think a lot of the small towns and businesses sort of took Dolores under their wing as part of that pride, in the same way we’re proud when the Irish football team make it to a big tournament for example. She was seen as an ‘Irish girl done good’ and I think that was an important part of our interactions with her.”
There were troubling times in
Canada too though.
In 2004 the singer and Burton won an action taken against them by their former nanny Joy
Fahy at the
High Court in Dublin.
Dolores branded the claims she made “completely untrue” after Ms Fahy’s unsuccessful bid to sue them for alleged false imprisonment and breach of contract. The frontwoman said she felt let down after the childminder quit suddenly during a family holiday in Ontario. Dolores’ children, Taylor, 20, Molly, 16, and 12-year-old Dakota continue to live in Buckhorn with their father.