CHRISTY Dignam has left behind a great legacy after his tragic passing this afternoon.
The singer had been receiving palliative care in recent months after a decade-long battle with amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder.
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The 63-year-old rock star was diagnosed in 2013 and endured a tough battle with cancer for years afterwards.
But Christy’s hard life didn’t begin 10 years ago but from a very young age when the star faced trauma that led to difficulties down the road.
At the age of six, Christy was abused by a local man in his hometown of Finglas.
The Crazy World singer previously opened up: “So when I was six a man sent me to the shop for a bottle of Cola and when I came back he says, ‘Come in’.
“But when I went in the house was in darkness and all the curtains were pulled.
“He stripped me off and he took the laces out of my shoes and tied me to a chair and f*****g molested me and all that.
“This came back to me like a film reel again and as I said I was in the Rutland centre going through intensive therapy trying to see what happened during my childhood and I was going I never had anything I had an amazing childhood because I just blocked this out.”
Christy explained that it happened a few times and that it gave him a “warped sex life”.
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He continued explaining: “That happened when I was six and he did it a couple of times it wasn’t just once.
“It was weird and I’m going to say something and I don’t know if people are going to understand this but it wasn’t so much that I got abused it was that after it happened a few times I felt chosen because there were all these kids.
“I didn’t know it was wrong and there were all these kids so I kind of felt special.
“Then as an adult looking back thinking, ‘Why was I not disgusted and horrified what was wrong with you?’
“Basically what that does to you is it gives you a sex life at six years of age when you don’t have the emotional capability to deal with a sex life and it’s also a warped sex life obviously it’s not natural thing so all that.”
He then went on to say that he once told another boy about his experience and he told his relative but the relative then abused him as well.
Christy continued: “That happened when I was about six to seven so I didn’t say anything to anyone but then when I was about nine I said it to a boy.”
That boy later told his relative who said he could help Christy.
The singer said: “So when he came home we went into the gaff and the man told the other boy to go outside and I thought it was a bit weird because he knew anyway and he went and done the same.
“So I grew up thinking I was teasing them or that I was doing something.
“I remember coming out afterwards and being asked, ‘Where were you?’ and I said, ‘Oh I was out the back’ and I remember telling them a lie.
“It was like the first lie I had ever told, now it obviously wasn’t but it was the first lie I remember telling.”
ADDICTION STRUGGLE
Christy couldn’t remember the abuse until he was much older, and has said the experience pushed him towards a lifelong struggle with drug addiction and psychological issues.
“It steals your peace, I never had any peace from that moment ‘til I was maybe 30 odd years of age.
“I went to the Rutland Centre, I was using heroin and stuff. So when I was going through treatment, on the fourth week, everybody would have this epiphany.
“They’d come in and start bawling their eyes out and say, ‘My Da used to come in on a Friday with all the wages spent and he’d beat me ma up and we’d have no food for the week’. And I was saying, ‘But nothing happened to me’.
“After the Rutland, I came into the gaff, he was saying, ‘What kind of an eejit are you? How did you take heroin? What sort of a thick are ya?’
“And I’d say, ‘Look it Da, maybe it was something that happened to me as a kid, some trauma’.”
But his dad, Christy Snr, took that as a personal attack, telling him: “Are you saying we didn’t love you enough?”
And Christy said one day he passed the house where the abuse took place and “it all came back like a video reel”.
He added: “A lot of the reason I was an addict was because of that.”
Dignam had a long-standing issue with drug addiction after turning to heroin in the 1980s.
He entered multiple drug treatment programs including a televised one which saw him travel to Thailand and attempt recovery in a Buddhist monastery.
The Dubliner has always been very open about his addiction issues.
He once said: “So when I drank I could take it or leave it, when I smoked hash I could take it or leave.
“It the first day I took heroin it was like I was home because the feeling just disappeared and I didn’t feel high or stoned.
“So that’s what addiction is you wake up in the morning with a feeling that you don’t want and you try and change something else so if you’re happy you’re going to look at that because who wants to be a drug addict.”
ASLAN FORMED
In 1982 Dignam formed the band Aslan, made up of Joe Jewell, Billy McGuinness, Alan Downey and Rodney O’Brien.
The band released six studio albums as well as two ‘best of’ albums.
They have a host of smash hits including Crazy World and This Is, which topped charts and lingered thereafter.
Aslan found a knack for having album’s reach the No 1 spot in the charts with Feel No Shame, (1988) Goodbye Charlie Moonhead (1994), Waiting For This Madness To End (2001), and Nudie Books and Frenchies in 2012 all achieving that impressive feat.
After the band split in August 1988, the Dubliner went on to form Dignam & Goff with guitarist Conor Goff.
FAMILY LIFE
And it was a happy time for Christy when he married his love, Kathryn that same year.
The pair soon welcomed their beloved daughter Kiera, who was pictured on stage with her doting dad when Aslan got back together in 1993.
The band went on to have repeated success in the charts, but this fame didn’t come without its own struggles.
Christy once owed a dealer money and they threatened him with a gun after a gig.
He said: “I remember coming home from a gig one day and I stopped at flats in town to get coke.
“I’m sitting outside the flats and it was snowing out and I’m in the car and this fella runs out with a shotgun that I owed money to that I got gear off.
“He got locked up and I never paid him because he got locked up and this was a year later so when I rang to order the coke your man was there.
“So when I arrived he ran so I put the car in reverse and then wheels kept spinning in the snow and your man is running at me with a shotgun it was a f***ing nightmare.”
Kathryn was left to cover costs in the Dignam household as Christy’s career took off.
Christy admitted: “We’d a No1 album here, we were flying all over the world but we were only on €93 (£80) a week.
“I’ve never said this before but I’ve made a load of bad decisions in my life, and I always thank God that I married her because without her I’d only have survived physically.”
Fast forward to the 2000s and Aslan frontman Christy went on to share the stage with many talented musicians.
Back in 2018, The Script asked Christy to join them at their 3Arena gig to perform Aslan’s song Crazy World.
In June 2013, Christy celebrated his daughter’s wedding to now husband Darren Morgan at Our Lady Help of Christians Church on the Navan Road in Dublin.
The proud father beamed next to the beautiful bride in stunning photos snapped on the special day.
Two years later, Aslan landed the gig of a lifetime and played for thousands of fans at the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final Replay, Dublin vs Mayo.
But in later years, Christy struggled to perform and the band had to cancel their massive 40th anniversary gig as the Dublin singer was back in hospital after a health setback.
And today, a decade on from getting his diagnosis and giving his daughter away, the family of Christy announced his passing.
Aslan paid tribute to their friend and frontman and said: “We are beyond devastated to have lost not just our band member, but our friend Christy, that we have had so many years of sharing our lives with.
“The band and Christy’s family, ask for you to respect their privacy at this time.”
Underneath the statement, which was shared on social media, devastated fans shared tributes and memories of the singer.
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