“It ’s strange, because I moved into Limerick city itself when I was 18 not in competition with one another. Certainly The Cranberries a re n ’t career teacher would say ‘what do you want to do, Dolores?’ And I’d and joined the band,” she muses. “But having spent most of this year in competition with the likes of Sinead O ’ Connor and U2. But, defi­ say ‘I want to be a rock singer and bring out albums and get a record on the road I then came back and found that so much has changed for nitely, The Cranberries have shown there is more to Ireland than just d e a l’. Then s h e ’d say ‘yeah, but d o n ’t you think nursing would be a me. All my friends have gone, in a sense. T h e y ’re still there, but i t ’s U2 and Sinead.” really nice career for you?’ T h e y ’d just pick any subject off-hand, obvi­ very hard to relate to them. And the point is that as you travel you Dolores pauses, laughs lightly, pours more coffee and then continues. ously believing that there is no future whatsoever in choosing a career make more and more new friends and they know exactly what y o u ’re “To tell you the truth, I really love U2. Like when w e ’re on tour in in music. That really was small-minded of them.” going through and what is happening to you as you tour, whereas when America and sitting, say, at a party where all these guys are into Black Dolores hopes that this blinkered, archaic attitude to the arts, within you com e back to Limerick people are talking to you about their exams Sabbath, or whatever and h a v e n ’t a clue about Ireland. Then, the next educational institutions, will change as a result of the influence of did it or whatever. minute U2 com e on TV and suddenly I’m saying ‘th ere’s U2, th ey ’re Michael D. Higgins. She agrees with his controversial suggestion that / “Or y o u ’re sitting in a pub with old friends and th e y ’re going ‘look at from Ireland, th e y ’re brilliant!’ And I get really happy, shouting ‘aboy the work of bands like U2 and The Cranberries should be studied in him, is n ’t he lovely look in g’, and you ’re there thinking ‘sure, but about lads, aboy Bono! Fair play to y o u se ! ’. And then someone usually says schools — and not just in an artistic sense. a hundred lads a night now come up to me at gigs, so I c a n ’t look at ‘any more Black Sabbath?’ and I’m going ‘leave U2 alone, leave their “If career teachers really are interested in the prospect for jobs and men the way I used to, or the way youse d o ’. S o it’s kinda hard to go song o n ’. But metallers really d o n ’t understand why I get patriotic and for making money, they should realise that the music business is one of back to Limerick and relate to friends. T h a t’s part of the reason I could blissful when U2 com e on. I t ’s the same when Sinead comes on the the richest industries in the world. The amount of money that can be Twelve months ago The Cranberries were never see myself living there again.” TV.” made is incredible, believe me! And Michael D. Higgins should ham­ However, at least one old friend from Limerick now travels with That said, Dolores laughs at what she describes as “the laziness” of mer people in the educational system over the heads until they realise Dolores and remains one o f the most important people in her life, she those who describe her as “a younger Sinead O ’ Connor.” that fact. Look at it this way, there are students in my school now who says. “People in America d o n ’t say that, only people here in Ireland,” she will spend maybe fifteen years working to earn anything like the “Breffni and I have been friends since I was four years old and she says, smiling impishly. unknown outside of the hippest rock circles. sees what I’m going through, because s h e ’s there all the time. She sees “So, I think I ’ll keep my me getting mobbed by fans and understands exactly what I’m feeling at hair short to make them a time like that, which makes our relationship even closer. Whereas, look even more stupid, i t ’s back in Limerick people say ‘God, is n ’t it great? All you did was sang such an obvious compari­ now with the platinum success o f the few oul songs and y o u ’re famous!’ What can you say to that? So son to make! But the only you say nothing. You just go ‘yeah, it ’s great, is n ’t it’ and realise that point o f comparison I see you are all drifting apart.” between U2, Sinead and us What, exactly, does Dolores feel when she is being mobbed by fans? is that we all broke in “It ’s kind of annoying at times,” she says. “Sure, i t ’s great to go on America. But U2 certainly Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't stage and hear the fans screaming and all that stuff but, after a gig, I’d d id n ’t influence me musi­ be dying to go out to Breff and say ‘Ho w ’s it going?’ and have a chat cally. When I was growing with her, but I ca n ’t. I ca n ’t go near the crowd after a gig. Because all it up my brothers were really takes is for three of them to notice you and they run over and start into their songs but I screaming ‘Dolores, I love you. Hug me, just one hug’ and they forget wasn’t. I was more into We? they stand as the first Irish band to I’m wrecked after a gig and just want to relax, especially if w e ’ve to dreamy music, whereas U2 journey overnight to the next gig. And those fans do take everything were hard, more macho at out of you, drain you in that way. the time.” “So I stay backstage until the hall is empty then, sometimes, I go out. It has been suggested that genuinely crack America since U2. Or, other times, I stay behind the barriers and wave from a distance, the success story of The which is fine. But I rarely go over and talk with them directly after a Cranberries really began gig because physically it ’s draining, with sometimes ten people asking when the all-male band you questions at the same time. And you d o n ’t want to be rude to them originally decided that because you do realise how much you could mean to them individually. their music was “feminine” Much of the media attention given to them Like, if you meet a teenager and they tell you that a song of yours total­ and that they needed a ly redeemed their head th a t’s lovely. female to capture this, a “But they also can get down on their knees, and stuff, crying and decision which led to wanting more. And you c a n ’t say ‘oh go away, I’m tired’ even if you D olores joining the band. feel like doing it. So it all is pressure on me, in that way. And some Is that true? has focussed on Dolores O'Riordan, a singer guys come up and claim they know you intimately because of the songs “In ways, yeah. In the and they get all intense and scary and I have to say to the guys in the beginning the bass player band ‘hey lads, watch him, will you?’ That can be frightening at was 16 and the other two times.” were 17 and 18 and the whose unique approach to her craft under­ It can be equally frightening when one person in an audience targets music was heavy, it was all you, says Dolores. This happened when The Cranberries were gigging ‘we are the b oy s’ stuff, with Suede in San Francisco. with silly lyrics like ‘/ “Suede w e r e n ’t popular on a widespread level in America, they d id n ’t strangled my friend yester- even sell one eighth of the records we sold. But their best markets were day/and he choked on his lines the defiantly independent path the places like San Francisco, which is not surprising as San Francisco is vomit*. They were into that the largest gay/lesbian settlement and Suede have that appeal. Their and into just having a drummer is gay and is very open about it. But there was one gay in par­ laugh. But, definitely, in ticular, behind all these bars and barriers and he started calling out time they did say that their ‘Dolores, give this to B r e tt’. music was softer than group has trodden all the way to the top of “He was screaming out, with his face pressed against the barrier. So most, so maybe it ’d be nice I’m going ‘yeah, sure.