Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society pays tribute to the late Anne Doherty 

“Rudy, she’s here”. She stood atop the stairs framed in spotlight, her stage presence commanded you to gaze at her. The orchestra struck up that familiar refrain, “Hello Dolly” and in that moment, as she descended the stairs in the Harmonia Gardens for the first time, Anne Doherty was Dolly Levi. 

Sadly in April, Anne passed away, less than nine months after her husband Harry, who incidentally was in the orchestra pit that night. Anne gave the performance of a lifetime in that show and was nominated for an AIMS award in 1982. 

But Anne Coady started her stage career long before.  Her father, Peter, often said as a child that Anne was destined to stand in front of a microphone. 

Anne had a wonderful voice that could lend itself to any genre of music.

  She came from a very musical family with her late father having his own dance band. Her late brother Billy Coady also appeared on stage with Carrick Musical Society in 1995, playing the baker, in the Irish premiere of The Baker’s Wife.  The Coady family was and still is very involved with Carrick Musical Society.

Anne started singing with the big bands of the 50s and 60s. She performed with her husband the late Harry Doherty as the lead singer with The Harry Doherty Show Band. 

They worked very successfully in each and every ballroom and dance hall throughout the south of the country and were in high demand. 

My earliest memory of Anne comes from our sitting room in Carrick possibly late sixties. Anne with guitar in hand singing Guantanamera, a song from Cuba sung in Spanish by Pete Seeger. So here we were, this stunning looking lady singing in Spanish and a man had just landed on the moon.

Anne was a regular on the Carrick stage with both the Musical Society and Brewery Lane  Drama group playing such varied roles as the prince or principle boy in the annual pantomime. 

Her first outing with the Musical Society was in 1969 in Cinderella at the Ormond Hall playing Prince Charming.  

Her roles varied from Mrs Higgins in my Fair Lady, Golda in Fiddler, Maria, the Duchess in Me and My Girl to Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly.  

Every role she played was given the special Anne Doherty treatment. She reinvented herself for each new role, whether it was in Brewery Lane Drama Group or with Carrick on Suir Musical Society.

 In each show you could learn something about stage craft from Anne.

Like us all, Anne had her trials and tribulations and overcame some serious battles with health through the years. 

She showed us what a fighter she was; how strong she was and how to carry on regardless of the hand you are dealt. 

Anne gave another stellar performance during 2003, in  a variety show called Broadway Beat where she sang “I’m Still Standin” by Sondheim. 

The audience was so moved by Anne’s performance and the poignancy of the song that they gave her a standing ovation every night. That was the essence of Anne; to be capable of delivering or performing to that standard regardless. She was a true artist.

Anne was a real lady, but she had a wonderful way of using and pronouncing “some words”, in a way that you knew the  message she was conveying. But you could never take offence, and you would never want to. 

She was always up for a bit of fun at rehearsals, and you could tell when that mischievous glint came into her eye, something was about to happen, or the dialogue was about to be rewritten. It was innocent fun. 

In latter years, Anne tried to take a leave of absence from Carrick Musical Society but she just always seemed to get pulled back in. Anne was always available to encourage younger members of the Society taking to the stage for the first time. She was for many years the person you relied on when you forgot your lines.  Anne was there to quietly give you a prompt from the side of the stage.

Anne Doherty will be sadly missed, but she will always be with us here in Carrick on Suir Musical Society as she was a big part of our front line for so many years. 

We are comforted in the knowledge that Anne and Harry are lining up a few gigs, somewhere up there among the stars. 

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; Love leaves a memory no one can steal.”