Showband singer Dickie Rock left an estate valued at €2.02 million when he died, according to papers published by the Probate Office.

Rock, of Marlborough Road in Donnybrook, Dublin, died at the age of 88 in December, 2024.

From 1963 onwards, he blazed a trail through the dance hall and ballroom scene in Ireland.

Originally trained as a welder, he became known for his dynamic presence on stage, first as the lead singer with the Miami Showband and later as a solo artist. He famously gave rise to cries of “spit on me Dickie” from excited audiences.

His obituary noted: “Where Britain had Beatlemania, Ireland was swept aloft by ‘Dickiemania’.”

In December 1963, Rock enjoyed his first number one when the Miami showband covered Elvis’s There’s Always Me. Over the next two years, they would top the charts on four more occasions.

In 1964, From the Candy Store on the Corner to the Chapel on the Hill made history as the song with the longest title to reach Irish number one. Twelve months later, they smashed the record books again when Every Step of the Way became the first release by an Irish band to go straight to the top.

Rock officially left the Miami Showband in 1972 – three years before the group was ambushed by loyalist paramilitaries while crossing the border from a gig in Belfast, resulting in the murder of three of the musicians.

He had a moderate hit with his first solo single, The Last Waltz, which reached number 15. But his biggest hit was a cover of John Denver’s Back Home Again which went to number one in 1977.

Dickie and his wife Judy had six children: sons Joseph, Jason, John, Richard and Peter, and daughter Sarah Jane.

In his autobiography, Always Me, the singer acknowledged he had fathered a child with a fan in 1975. His daughter Stacey has remained largely out of the public eye.

Rock used to gently mock himself in later years, remarking that entertainer Sil Fox “says I’m so mean even the pockets on my pool table are tight”. He told the Irish Sun: “My fridge has a lock on it. I put a fork in my sugar bowl when visitors come around, to save money.”

He was predeceased by his son Joseph and wife Judy.