{"id":35319,"date":"2025-08-31T21:58:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/35319\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T21:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:58:29","slug":"high-emotions-as-dermot-kennedy-joins-the-cranberries-to-sing-dolores-oriordans-immaculate-songs-at-electric-picnic-2025-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/35319\/","title":{"rendered":"High emotions as Dermot Kennedy joins The Cranberries to sing Dolores O\u2019Riordan\u2019s immaculate songs at Electric Picnic 2025 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noel and Mike Hogan with Dermot Kennedy Main Stage, Electric Picnic\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n

The premise of this late addition to the Electric Picnic<\/a> line-up is bittersweet: Noel and Mike Hogan of The Cranberries<\/a> teaming up with the RT\u00c9 Concert Orchestra<\/a> to perform songs indelibly linked to Dolores O\u2019Riordan<\/a>, their late bandmate.<\/p>\n

Since her death, in 2018, most assumed the door had closed. To see the Hogans step back on to a stage with this material, then, is to watch not just a performance but an act of remembrance \u2013 and, indeed, before the brothers come onstage the crowd is more subdued than usual.<\/p>\n

When Noel Hogan finally addresses the audience he does so with a deadpan air. \u201cWe played in a band you might\u2019ve heard of called The Cranberries,\u201d he says, prompting the first eruption of full-throated cheers. \u201cWe were asked to sing a few songs. But Mike and I can\u2019t sing, so we invited our friend … Please welcome Dermot Kennedy<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The roar that greets this surprise is even louder \u2013 and the afternoon now hinges on a fascinating tension. The Cranberries\u2019 catalogue is so ingrained in our cultural memory, songs such as Linger, Dreams, Zombie and Ode to My Family so whole and perfect in the mind\u2019s ear, that any reinterpretation seems fated to disappoint, no matter how considered.<\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic 2025: Dermot Kennedy and Mike Hogan on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson \"ElectricElectric Picnic 2025: Dermot Kennedy and Noel Hogan on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson \"ElectricElectric Picnic 2025: the crowd during Dermot Kennedy’s performance with Noel and Mike Hogan on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Kennedy approaches the task with humility. \u201cHonoured, and a little flabbergasted, to be up here singing songs that hold such a place in Irish musical history,\u201d he tells the crowd at the start of a set in which he carries himself throughout as though acutely aware of the responsibility.<\/p>\n

His voice, rich and powerful, proves both asset and obstacle. Kennedy has a gift for epic scale, for immediately emotive anthemic delivery that fills fields and stadiums. Combined with the sweep of the orchestra, this lends the set a soaring grandeur. It\u2019s stirring, even overwhelming at times, yet some of the original songs\u2019 haunting strangeness, their fragility and passion, is inevitably lost. What was intimate and raw becomes, in this context, something more polished and cinematic.<\/p>\n

Still, to dwell on that absence is to miss the point. This concert is never about replication. It\u2019s an exercise in tribute, in honouring a collection of immaculately beautiful songs. On those terms it succeeds. During Dreams, as thousands of voices join Kennedy\u2019s in unison, the arena seems to swell with pride and emotion. This is less performance than shared ritual, a moment of connection rooted in memory and loss but also in joy.<\/p>\n

By the time they sing Zombie, their closing song, there are tears in the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noel and Mike Hogan with Dermot Kennedy Main Stage, Electric Picnic\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 The premise of this late addition to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[27461,27460,18,11985,117,19,17,27462,27459],"class_list":{"0":"post-35319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dermot-kennedy","9":"tag-dolores-o-riordan","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-electric-picnic","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-rte-concert-orchestra","16":"tag-the-cranberries"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}