A music bursary, in memory of late rockstar, Dolores O’Riordan, has been established to support the careers of musicians in the singer’s native Limerick.
The €4,000 bursary was launched today by Limerick City and County Council in association with the family of the former frontwoman with The Cranberries.
O’Riordan died while staying at the Park Lane Hilton, London, on January 15th last year.
Her distinctive voice and songwriting talents helped catapult The Cranberries to global stardom in the 1990s.
O’Riordan’s mother, Eileen, said she was thrilled her daughter’s achievements had been honoured with a bursary.
“I am delighted that Limerick is honouring Dolores in this way and in particular in such an imaginative way. It’s my hope that the Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary will allow a musician to follow their dreams,” Eileen O’Riordan added.
A Council spokesman said the local authority “has been in regular contact with Dolores’ mother Eileen and her family to discuss ways that Limerick can remember and commemorate the global superstar”.
“Following discussions with her family, it has been agreed that The Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary will be established to support a Limerick professional musician to develop their career,” they added.
The bursary will got towards costs relating to the production of a specific body of new artistic work, development of new work for performance, presentation or recording, as well as, relating to improving their musical knowledge through any research or short-term courses or mentoring.
The bursary winner will be allowed also use the funds for costs relating to improving their professional capacity, such as website development, or documentation, or any purpose that contributes to the removal of existing barriers to an artist’s development.
The Mayor of Limerick City and County, Cllr Michael Sheahan said O’Riordan “understood the hard work required in being a musician” and she had left “a wonderful legacy, through her family and through her music”.
“We hope that this bursary will help a Limerick-based professional musician move to the next step. Limerick City and County Council has always followed the wishes of Dolores’ mother Eileen and her family as to how best to remember Dolores. We will continue to look at other ways to honour the global superstar in the longer term, but at the moment we are respecting the family’s wishes by announcing this Music Bursary,” Cllr Sheahan added.
The closing date for applications, which are available from www.limerick.ie, is Thursday 31 October 2019.
