Some readers will know Sandra Dolan from her years of working in the Bank of Ireland and some will know Sandra from singing solo, and as part of the Dolan Family with the Remembering Joe Show. Growing up in a house full of singers meant it was only to be expected that Sandra would take to the stage as well at some stage, and she has, full time now. If you haven’t seen Sandra sing yet, see her perform with the Dolan Family in The Greville Arms on 10 March, 2023.
What were you like as a child?
Well, being brought up with four brothers (Adrian, Raymond, Michael and Colin), me being the second youngest, I was a bit of a tomboy! None of us were that keen on sports but that didn’t stop me from me from running around, climbing and falling out of trees, and I have the scars to prove it!Â
My mother tried to take the tomboy out of me by taking me to ballet dancing lessons…this didn’t quite work out!
I went to Mrs Brosnan’s play-school on Mount Street, where I would have made my debut stage performance. I then went on to Presentation School and finally onto Mullingar Vocational School where I completed my leaving cert.Â
From a very early age music was part of our everyday life with Daddy (Ben) and Uncle Joe in a band and playing all around the country. It was obvious that they were quite ‘famous’ but we were well grounded by our mother (Moira).Â
The band used to rehearse in our garage and one memory that sticks out is when me and my friend Rhonda, whose father Pat Hoye played bass guitar in the band, would walk home from school and hear the band playing and getting louder as we got closer to the garage…it was quite exciting and gave me the grá for singing.
We have a farm and I remember going out with Daddy when I was young, counting and dosing cattle. I must say if wasn’t my favourite thing to do at the time but I think that Daddy just wanted me for the company. I knew farming life was not going to be for me but one of my brothers (Michael) didn’t mind the muck as much, so he took on that role as farmer.
In school I would have been part of the school shows and that lead onto singing with local pop and rock bands, some of which were The Better Half, In Too Deep and The Blues Band, among others. Â
