Christy Dignam has revealed his daughter's birth was the happiest moment of his life as he continues to receive end of life care.
The comments were made in a touching interview with RTE's Ryan Tubridy in the front room of his Dublin home where he is receiving palliative care. The Aslan singer has been unwell for 10 years after he was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder that is associated with certain cancers.
The Crazy World singer also spoke about how he wants his funeral to go and the happiest and saddest times of his life. There have been tough times as Christy faces the end of his life which can send him into negative "spirals".
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He said: "I was sitting here one day and I was looking out the window. This was only about a couple of weeks ago.
"This fella walked by the door. And I looked at him and thought, 'you'll never do that again. You'll never just go for a walk again'."
"That sent me into a spiral and I was thinking about things I won't do again." Ryan asked Christy what a spiral feels like.
He said: "It doesn't feel nice. It is like when you are heading into an abyss.
"I wouldn't be hugely religious so...I remember admiring Catherine's mam and dad and my mam and dad because they were thinking, 'we've done the hard bit, now we are going to heaven'."
"When I first got diagnosed, I remember praying, 'please just give me 10 more years'. Now the 10 years are up and I am kind of saying, ' I know I only asked for 10 but you couldn't throw another 10 in there'."
Addiction brought with it the worst times of Christy's life. He said: "Addiction was a nightmare. I feel terrible sorry for kids nowadays.
"It's becoming hopeless. These kids are seeing hoe much money can be made and it is harder to get them to stop now.
"I can't think of any worse times than that [the addiction]. I remember going over to Thailand and Jesus it was a nightmare.
"They put you in a lockdown compound, take all your money off you and give you like monopoly money that only works on site. I remember once I was in bed and when you are coming off drugs you sweat a lot so I was kind of half sleeping.
"I felt a pool of sweat in the middle of my chest rolling down my chest. I opened my eyes and there was like a praying mantis eating a butterfly on my chest. I thought this is not where I should be today."
The birth of Christy's daughter Ciara was the happiest moment of his life. He said: "The happiest moment I ever had in my life was Ciara being born.
"I will never forget that moment. I remember thinking with Ciara, this person exists after having no identity. She was just a bump on Catherine.
"Then in a nanosecond you would kill everybody in the room if they tried to touch that baby. I remember the love hit me that quickly and suddenly that it nearly knocked me off my feet.
"The was an amazing feeling". Christy added that facing the end of his life has made him prioritise the most important things in life.
He said: "When I first got diagnosed, I remember thinking I don't care what car I dove. I didn't care where I lived. I didn't care about Aslan. I didn't care about fame well I never did care about fame. The only thing I cared about was seeing my grandkids for a little bit longer."
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