Daniel O’Donnell isn’t hard to spot.
His face is as familiar in Ireland and other parts of the world as most Premiership football stars or actors.
That’s perhaps even more true in his native Donegal.
I stood outside St Eunan’s Church in Raphoe on Friday last waiting for the remains of my wife’s aunt to arrive.
Mary McNulty (nee O’Connor) was a lovely, unassuming woman who lived until her early 80s.
A loving wife of Al (Phonsie) McNulty, the couple raised five lovely daughters and returned to Donegal from England where they ran the Central Hotel in Raphoe before retiring.
Mary was originally from Dungloe and was very proud of her West Donegal roots.
As her daughters waited for their mother’s remains to arrive at the church on Friday morning last, a lone figure approached them to offer his condolences.
Dressed in a floral shirt and a dark jacket, he was instantly recognisable.
There was no fuss and no airs or graces.
Daniel simply embraced each and every one of them and offered them his sympathy on the loss of their mother.
He then simply joined those waiting on Mary and recalled her life and times while catching up with the many people he hadn’t seen for an age.
The funeral mass for Mary, a wife, mother, sister, grandmother and great grandmother was deeply touchingand she was quite rightly remembered as the beautiful person she was.
The priest invited the congregation to make a gesture of goodwill towards each other.
Since Covid times, nobody really knows if it is appropriate to offer a handshake, a nod or a fist pump for that matter.
Having shaken hands with my wife and other members of the extended family, I turned around to nod to the person behind me and who was it but Daniel.
I know now that Daniel doesn’t do nods or fist pumps, he does handshakes and solid ones at that.
At a later stage in the mass I noticed somebody approach Daniel and whisper in his ear and I could hear him replying ‘That would be an honour.”
Moments later he left his seat and joined singer Aoife McGinley Parke for two songs, the second being a truly emotional version of ‘Mary from Dungloe’
I’m not a fan of Daniel O’Donnell’s music and I don’t own any of his records and probably never will.
But on Friday I finally got what all the fuss was about after years of looking and wondering about him from afar.
In a previous life as a national newspaper columnist, I’m embarrassed to say that I found him an easy target and I regret that to this day.
But I now realise that Daniel O’Donnell is just a decent human being who just also happens to be very, very famous.
He does countless charity work, visits the sick and lends his time and support to so many worthy projects and all because it’s the right thing to do.
And he does all that without asking for any notoriety, praise, payment or thanks.
It’s taken me a little longer than most of his millions of doing fans, but I think I finally get the Daniel phenomenon.
SM