Talented Irish Singer From Rural Limerick Achieved Global Fame

According to interviews she later gave, she endured childhood sexual abuse beginning around the age of eight and lasting several years — trauma that would leave deep emotional marks and influence her art for the rest of her life.

School friends sometimes found her unusual — quiet in some ways, intense in others — as if she carried her own inner world that few could see. Music became her outlet, her language for expressing emotions she could not yet articulate.

Leaving Home and Finding Her Voice
At the age of 18, Dolores made a bold and life‑altering decision: she left her home in Ballybricken and moved to Limerick to pursue her dreams — a choice that marked her first real step into the vast unknown.