Daniel O'Donnell I REMEMBER…

After finding fame in the 1980s, Ireland’s Daniel O’Donnell has sold more than 10 million records. The 58-year-old singer looks back on his early life in County Donegal, performing at the world’s legendary venues and why Strictly was the most terrifying thing he’s ever done

- Simon Button

…THE HOUSE I WAS BORN IN WAS a two-storey house that belonged to my mother’s family. Her uncle had built it and they let us live there because they lived in Scotland and weren’t using it themselves. It was in Kincasslagh, in County Donegal, and I remember it being a lovely home—with people visiting and a big open fire with a chain that the pots hung on—even though my room was just off the kitchen and the toilet was a tin hut across the road.

…WHENEVER MUHAMMAD ALI, or Cassius Clay as he was known then, was boxing on the telly, we’d all watch. The matches were around 8pm in the US so it was the middle of the night for us. Myself and my brothers and sisters were allowed to get up to view the live broadcast, but you’d only just be out of bed when he’d knock his opponent out. Sometimes you’d miss it because by the time you’d gotten downstairs, the match was over.

…MY FATHER DIED WHEN I WAS SIX. He worked on farms in Scotland and was away from home a lot, so it was left to my mother to raise me and my two brothers and two sisters. Dad was only 49 when he died from a heart attack and then she was very much on her own with us kids. I was the youngest and because I was only six, his death didn’t really affect me, although it hit my older siblings harder. My mother was quite a strong character, very involved in everything, and she lived to be a great age. She was almost 95 when she passed away in 2013.