Bressie reveals Limerick connections as he prepares to bring intimate gig to the city

THE city of Limerick runs through singer and broadcaster Niall ‘Bressie’ Breslin like a stick of rock.

Or perhaps, more appropriately, like the River Shannon, which the former Blizzards singer last year kayaked the length of to raise money for A Lust For Life, the youth mental health charity he co-founded.

“I’d know more about Limerick than you’d believe,” he smiles, as we sit down to talk about an intimate gig he will be performing at John’s Church, St John’s Square in the city centre later this month.

Bressie has packed a lot into his 44 years in the world - a successful music career, mental health advocacy, as well as mentoring the next generation of vocal talent as a judge on The Voice of Ireland.

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Prior to this, he played under-age Gaelic football for his native Westmeath, and entered the professional sporting arena playing rugby for his province Leinster.

Across all this, Limerick retains a fond place in the campaigner’s heart.

Indeed, the Treaty City is one of only a handful of spots he will be taking his tour to.

“Limerick was the first city I sold a show out, ever, with The Blizzards. So it was always on the cards to come here,” he says, outlining how he graduated from playing Upstairs in Dolan’s, to the Warehouse in the same venue, then to The Big Top at the Milk Market.

“You have to go through a programme to get your Leaving Cert. I haven’t failed yet - I hope,” he laughs.

Bressie’s new album is called The Place That Has Never Been Wounded.

Featuring 14 piano compositions - the instrument he started playing as a child, and one which he believes is the greatest in the world - the release has been described as a “stylistic swerve” from his earlier work.

“Part musical breakthrough, part philosophical treatise and part autobiography,” its promotional material reads.

He says: “I’ve created this album for myself. It means an immense amount to me, as it’s all the things I’ve not been able to say. I think a lot of people will understand how music has this profound ability to release something in us.”

At the moment, Bressie is doing his PhD at Trinity College - focused on social psychology and sociology.

It’s a move he admits did not go down well with many pals due to the college’s rivalry with nearby University College Dublin.

But earlier in his life, he revealed he almost crossed another divide - on the rugby pitch.

“When I was playing rugby for Leinster, I nearly signed for Munster. It wouldn’t have gone down well! But Alan Gaffney was the coach here and he brought me down and interviewed me. I’d have lived in this city,” he admits.

Looking out of the window of the Clayton Hotel, where we met, Bressie gestures to the mighty River Shannon as he recalls his epic kayak from Dowra on the Leitrim-Cavan border to the heart of Limerick.

“I have seen things on that river. I can’t look at it now without feeling some post-traumatic stress as it was difficult,” he said.
Bressie pinpoints one part of the kayak - where he was closing in on Limerick - when his luck turned, near Killaloe.

“I wasn’t in a great place at that point, as I was so exhausted. We had this s****y south wind in our face the whole way across Lough Derg. I was saying, I’m not going to be able to do this. But as we turned a corner to go to Killaloe, and do the 12km along this estuary, the wind changed. It became a north wind, and it blew us the whole way into Killaloe,” he recalls.

The experience, he takes as a symbol, which he shared with some of those who joined him on the waterway.

“There were beautiful parts, there were really horrible parts, there were scary parts, and life-affirming parts like in Killaloe. You’d try to say to young people - that’s life. Life is not a straight line. Sometimes it’s nice and great and lovely, and the wind is at your back. Other days it’s horrible. This is the scribble of becoming.”

As soon as Bressie finished the kayak, he got a tattoo marking the flow of the Shannon, from Ross Nagle, the world-famous ink artist, based at Wickham Street in the city centre.

“He’s the only person who is allowed near my arm. Even my mother likes him - but she hates tattoos,” the singer laughs. “We call him Ross the tattoo therapist. Because if you have any problems, you can just go in and chat to him. He talks to you, and is a very calming influence.”

Limerick is the first stop on Bressie’s promotional tour, with the show taking place on Bank Holiday Monday, October 27 - just two days after ‘The Place That Has Never Been Wounded’ is released.

Stripped away, with nothing but a piano , Bressie admits it will leave him “vulnerable,” with the instrument offering no place to hide if errors are made.

He hopes the concert will offer a “calming immersive experience” for those who come.

And the vulnerability actually adds to the attraction, an antidote to today’s heavily produced, autotuned music.

“There’s a good reason we are still listening to music that was produced in the 1960s and 1970s, because it wasn’t perfect. The recordings were not perfect. There was weirdness, time problems, there were variations. But it felt right. The way pop music works now is that it’s basically a computer,” he said, predicting that today’s chart-toppers will not stand the test of time.

As if to bring things full circle, Bressie says once he has completed his gig here, he will head to All-Star Tattoos where he says he will get some ink on his arm from Ross to commemorate the milestone.

Information and tickets for the gig are available from www.niallbreslin.com or www.eventbrite.ie.