Even Tuam sceptics became Daniel fans

By TOM GILMORE EVEN some Tuam people who were sceptical about singer Daniel O'Donnell have been converted to the crooner's style. So says Caroline Heffernan, the cystic fibrosis sufferer, who had him perform at a house party in her home last week. 'Some people came along with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. But I can assure you that everybody who left the house last Wednesday night left as fans of Daniel,' says Caroline (40) who got the singer to perform in her home by writing to The Mooney Show on RTE Radio 1. The mother of two has battled bravely with cystic fibrosis for many years. While her rigorous fitness and medication regime has enabled her to carry on she admits that she was exhausted, but elated, after all the excitement of Daniel's visit. The event, first reported in The Tuam Herald last week, which later made national headlines, was a massive success. 'Words can't describe the magic of it all,' says Caroline who now plans to have a bus full of fans going to Daniel's concert the next time he is in the West. 'The Caroline Bus will be on the road when he plays in this area again but unfortunately that will not be until next summer,' she says. Entertained for three hours He entertained everybody for three hours at the Heffernans' home and this was broadcast, along with some interviews by Brenda Donohue, on The Mooney Show the following day on RTE1. Caroline says she got loads of thank you cards, text messages and letters since then, some with donations for the Cystic Fibrosis unit at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar. 'Afterwards he visited the mother of a friend of mine as she was bedbound and unable to come to our house for the event. 'When I could not contact her on the phone Daniel said that he would drive to her house anyway and visit her. We went with him and she was overjoyed when he arrived at her home,' says Caroline. Declan McIntyre from The Cake Box, High Street, baked a cake with the words 'Welcome Daniel and Brenda' on it and when it emerged that it was his wife's Vivienne's, birthday Daniel serenaded her with a song and all in attendance joined in. The Heffernans had a marquee at the house to accommodate the huge number of people that turned up on their doorstep to catch a glimpse or shake the hand of their singing idol. 'He enjoyed some curry with us and he also sampled the various apple tarts that were baked for him by a number of us. 'It was a most memorable event, but he didn't say which apple tart was the best,' she concluded with a smile. Singing star did a double visit DURING his trip to Tuam last week, singer Daniel O'Donnell paid a surprise second visit to a house in the town, at the behest of nine-year-old Darragh Creaven, who wrote a letter to the star asking him to call and see his grandmother, as she is a big fan of the Donegal crooner. Little Darragh knew that his mother was one of the people invited to the home of cystic fibrosis sufferer Caroline Heffernan and he had the initiative to write to the singer, asking him to also call to his grandmother. When the child showed his mother, Frances, the letter that he had written, she was surprised but delighted and they set about getting an address to post it to. 'I went into the Google website and the only address I could see was Kincasslagh, Co. Donegal. 'Darragh wrote on top of the envelope the words, 'very important letter' and we let it off in the post in the hope that the singer might get it,' says Frances. Shortly before 6 o'clock last Wednesday evening, they got a surprise phone call from Daniel saying that he was in Tuam and looking for directions to Darragh's grandparents' house. Darragh and his little brother Ronan (6) were excited, and they quickly made their way from their home at The Meadows, Milltown Road to their grandparents house, where Daniel posed with them for photos and signed autographs. 'Their grandparents, Angela and Tom are big fans of Daniel and it was a great surprise for them that Darragh had set up the surprise visit,' says Frances. She added that it would not have happened only for the fact that Caroline Heffernan had got Daniel to come to Tuam, and the Creaven family were chuffed that granny Angela got to meet her singing hero in her own home. 'She is the best nana in the whole wide world. She minds us and makes our dinners every day. 'I am nine years old and when I heard that you were coming to Tuam, I was just wondering if you could give her a surprise by visiting her. She lives at Fairgreen Heights, which is very near to the house that you are going to,' wrote Darragh in his letter to Daniel. 'He was such a gentleman and everybody in the family was so delighted that he heeded Darragh's letter and surprised his grandparents with the visit. 'Sending the letter to Kincasslagh was like writing to Santa at the North Pole, and we are so glad that it got to him and he responded,' concluded Frances.