Thomas on song for rescue services

AFTER a late start in the music business Dingle man Thomas O’Callaghan is rapidly making up for lost time with two CDs already under his belt and a third on the way, all of them with Irish ballads as a common theme and helping the helpers as a common purpose.

Although he has been a noted balladeer since his youth, Thomas was past the half century mark before he ever gave a thought to recording a CD – and then it was only at the prompting of Joe Queally of Clare RNLI, who saw it as a way of raising funds for the lifeboat service.

The first CD, entitled Dingle Bay, was launched in 2017 and two years later Thomas was back from the recording studio with his second CD, ‘Take Two’. All the money earned from sales of the CDs has been donated to the RNLI in Clare and Kerry as well as Dingle Coast & Cliff Rescue and on last Saturday there was more money to be handed out, which Thomas duly presented to Frank Heidtke of the Coast & Cliff.

This week the final mixing is being done on Thomas’s

next album, ‘Songs of Kerry and Others’ which, as the name suggests, is a collection of ballads from Kerry and further afield. Money raised from this CD will go to Recovery Haven and with Thomas’s good friend Terry O’Connor again lined up for a leading role in the sales and marketing department it is to be expected that the donations will be substantial.

Terry’s prowess as a salesman of the previous two CDs has proved such a phenomenon that Thomas would now like him to be known as the manager of the Thomas O’Callaghan Showband – and there are big plans in store for the launch of the latest recording.

“The music scene has gone quiet but Terry is looking forward to a grand opening at the Seapoint Ballroom, Rockall, on Christmas night, with 3,000 people expected to bring their dancing shoes,” said Thomas.

We’re not entirely sure how that will work out but it’s safe to say the multitude at the launch would be waltzing on water to the sound of Thomas’s dulcet tones.

Terry O’Connor presenting a cheque for €800 to Frank Heidtke of Dingle Coast & Cliff Rescue on behalf of Thomas O’Callaghan who raised the money from sales of his CD ‘Take Two’, which was released last year. Joining the two at Ballintaggart where the gates of the racecourse were closed on what would have been the Saturday of Dingle Races were, from left: Tom Browne, Thomas O’Callaghan and Donal Long of Dingle Coast & Cliff.