Singer turned politician Frances Black has had an interesting career and life. Coming from a very musical family, she first made her name as a singer before being elected to the Seanad in 2020.
Since being elected, she's become one of the most outspoken politicians and continues to fight injustice, from the humanitarian crisis in Palestine to supporting those in addiction.
However, she says it took her a while to realise she belonged in Leinster House, and to get the hang of all the rules and procedures. “I didn’t even drive my car into the car park for about three months because I thought that was only for important people,” she laughs. “It has been an incredibly amazing journey and I’ve never taken my job as a senator for granted. It’s such a privilege.”
Read more: Frances Black opens up about addiction, her grandkids and why her husband is her rock
Read more: Lisa McHugh will spend Christmas back home in Glasgow with husband Nathan and kids Milo and Hallie
The Dubliner has been particularly vocal around the issue of Palestine for several years, long before the Israel-Hamas war began.
“I would have seen the illegal occupation down through the years and Palestine is really close to my heart,” she says. “I have always been very aware of Gaza and how it’s an open prison. It’s devastating to watch what’s going on there.”
Frances became chair of the Friends of Palestine group and worked on the Occupied Territories Bill in 2018, which seeks to prevent Ireland from trading in goods and services imported from Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. It passed most, but not all, stages in the Dáil as senior Government figures concluded at the time that trade with Israel is an issue that can only be addressed at EU level.
The Bill is back in the news lately as Frances recently released newly-published legal advice from two professors of EU trade law that says the Government position is incorrect and Ireland is entitled to pass the Bill.
“The situation in Palestine has rapidly deteriorated,” says Frances. “While the world is focused on the horrific, genocidal war in Gaza, across the West Bank we’re also seeing one of the biggest land grabs in decades – more homes destroyed, families displaced, settlements built. How can we repeatedly condemn this as illegal but continue to trade in the goods produced? It’s clear hypocrisy and it must stop.”
When she was elected, Frances thought about her late parents, Patty and Kevin, and wished they were still around to see her take her place in the Seanad. Her dad was a plasterer who came from Rathlin Island, a small island off the coast of Antrim, and he was very politically aware.
After he met her mother, who came from inner-city Dublin, they settled in Charlemont Street and went on to have five children – Shay, Michael, Mary, Martin and Frances.
At the time, the houses there were tenement houses and the Blacks shared theirs with other families initially. As the years went on, they acquired more rooms and eventually bought the house and opened a grocer’s shop downstairs.
“We were a family that struggled financially, as many families did in the 50s and 60s,” says Frances. “There was a lot of poverty and I suppose my father would have had dreams of bettering himself. He wanted the best for his family and that’s why he opened his little shop. While some of my brothers went on to third-level education, at that time, girls, where we came from, were brought up to be homemakers.
“It was expected that we would leave school early and have a family with someone who would work and bring home the money. Mary did her Leaving Cert but I left school at 15, so I think my parents would have been really blown away by me becoming a senator.”
It was a very musical family as her dad played fiddle and her mum sang, and all of the Black children went on to make music professionally. Frances was involved in the A Woman’s Heart album, and has had an amazing career in music, with best-selling albums and tours under her belt.
She had previously recorded and performed with Kieran Goss, Arcady and the The Fallen Angels, but when two of the tracks she recorded – After The Ball and Wall Of Tears – were placed on the A Woman’s Heart album in 1992, it changed the course of her life. Frances performed alongside her sister Mary, Sharon Shannon, Dolores Keane, Eleanor McEvoy and Maura O’Connell, audiences at the live concerts loved her shy charm and self-deprecating wit.
Even so, she was shocked when the Dolphin Music Group invited her to make a solo album. “I nearly didn’t take the record deal,” she admits. “I’d always been part of a duo or group so I didn’t think I’d be able to do it on my own.”
Frances need not have worried as Talk To Me was a smash hit and went to No1 for 10 weeks. “It was a really exciting time,” says Frances, who has released eight albums since then. She is delighted that a 3CD compilation album of her greatest hits – and some new tracks – called Anthology has just been released to celebrate her 30-year solo career. “I was delighted when Paul O’Reilly from Dolphin came to me with the idea of releasing this album,” she says. “There are some brilliant songs on it that I think could have been hit singles, but just never got the opportunity. I think people will love hearing them.”
Frances is much different to the young woman lacking in confidence she once was. “I had to challenge the negative voice in my head telling me I was no good”, she says. “I’ve done a lot of work on myself, and I know what I’m doing comes from a good place and is done with a good heart.”
- The 3CD album, Frances Black Anthology, is out now in shops and on essentialirish.com.
- Frances will perform at Roscommon Arts Centre on 11 January; Garage Theatre, Monaghan, on 1 March. Her concerts with Mary Coughlan and Sharon Shannon take place in the Keadeen, Kildare, on 17 January; Hotel Kilkenny on 18 January;
Cork Opera House on 9 April; and The Lark Balbriggan on 3 May. See frances-black.net
English (US) ·