We have the very first of the many presents that Dolores will receive on her birthday, and we couldn’t be any prouder and happier about it. The Morning Star Park in Bruff, Limerick, is to be re-named Dolores O’Riordan Park in honour of our princess. 

Many of you may remember The Morning Star Park. In 2014, Barry Egan chose this natural environment as the scene for his interview to Dolores and her mother Eileen, where they talked about The Voice of Ireland, including such varied topics as equality, feminism, maternity, the complications of fame from her own experience and her mother’s and the importance of stopping in order to smell the flowers.

The park renaming ceremony will be held on September 6^th, on Dolores’ 48^th birthday. It will be the first day of the Dreams Festival, which Bruff is preparing on September 6^th, 7^th and 8^th . This festival will be held to celebrate Dolores’ life, and to support local artists, who will be performing on an open air stage, and in five various indoor venues. Its main aim is to bring together communities that are normally isolated, and to celebrate Dolores’memory and legacy.

Festival coordinator Julianne Hennelly has expressed her delight to be part of this project. “Dolores has helped so many of us struggling with depression in Ireland and throughout the world, we want to celebrate her homeland which inspired her art and kind nature.”

While The Cranberries and the O’Riordan family are not involved in the organising of this event, a spokesperson for the band and the family wished the organisers the very best with the festival.

For all this, we feel very proud and this recognition has touched our hearts. This park has witnessed one of the most personal, motivating and human interviews that Dolores has given us, an inspiring example of self-improvement, strength, love for family and the search for personal growth, as well as a little reminder of Dolores’ kindness and generosity. Nobody will ever forget that together with The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan has been one of the most important and acclaimed singers worldwide, and that she has sold more than 40 million albums throughout the world, but what nobody should ever forget, is that she was also an kind soul with a pure, full of generosity heart; a spirit that grew by inspiring and helping others. May every time you visit Dolores O’Riordan Park make you remember her words in that interview. May every time you walk under those trees make you remember the importance of stopping by to smell the flowers.