Shane Filan – a night for Donal

Last night I went along to the Knocknarea Arena at the IT Sligo for the final night of Shane Filan’s You and Me tour. The night was in aid of the Donal Parsons Trust.

Donal Parsons is a little boy who lives in Strandhill, Co. Sligo. In October 2013 Donal was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a very rare Children’s cancer. Donal is currently receiving 18 months of intensive treatment at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin.

I was there to take photos of the night including the ‘Meet and Greets’. I was the only photographer allowed in to take the meet and greet pics…so no pressure there! It was fine though, everyone was very nice including Shane. I’ve met him a couple of times before but not in an official capacity.

It was great to see all the volunteers and everyone really joined together to make the night the huge success it was. The highlight of the night for me was a little girl in a wheelchair who was so overjoyed to see Shane that she phoned her friend to tell her she’d met him. She was in hysterics laughing, bless her!

Hugh O’Neill was the first support act. He was really good and got the crowd singing along with him.

Glenn Cal was up next and after a couple of songs he was joined by Padraig O’Reilly and Dean Mahon. They were brilliant and got the crowd singing along.

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After a short break Shane and his band took to the stage. I’d been listening to the band before the concert started and they were singing Christmas songs and it sounded like they were having a great time.

We were only allowed to take photos during the first three songs and I see that later in the show one fan got to go on stage which would have been good to photograph.

A big round of applause to all involved for a wonderful night. I hope it raised loads of money for the charity. You can see the rest of the photos on the Donal Parsons Trust page.