The Coronas halt Limerick gig after guitarist suffers medical emergency

Sean Ryan

A medical emergency halted a major concert by The Coronas seconds after it started at King John’s Castle in Limerick city on Friday night.

Thousands of revellers had flocked to the venue near Limerick city centre on Friday night for the ‘Live at the Castle’ gig which was due to kick-start the Bank Holiday weekend festivities. However, shortly after the Corona’s took to stage guitarist Lar Kaye suffered a medical emergency.

While the gig was suspended for a time, lead singer Danny O’Reilly thanked the audience for their patience and confirmed the concert would be postponed until July.

He said: "First of all, we really appreciate you being here tonight and hanging around, and we want to keep going and do the show, but until we know 100 per cent that Lar (Kaye, guitarist) is okay, it just doesn't feel right.

“I did speak to Lar a minute ago and, you know, he’s a bit shook and he's embarrassed that everyone saw him fall. But as I say, until we get the all-clear, it just... we were talking about it, it just wouldn't feel right for us being up here trying to sing music when we don't know what’s going on.”

Confirming the new date he said: “We want Lar to be on stage with us when we come back, and we'll know the date for sure. It's looking like it's going to be either the 10th or 11th of July.”

Among the well-wishers who sent best wishes was Limerick based comedian Pat Shorrtt who tweeted: "I’m in Italy with a bunch of Limerick lads on motorcycles and our thoughts are with the Coronas and all the crew the Castle tonight. We hope everyone is safe tonight."

The Dublin-based band have released seven studio albums, Heroes or Ghosts (2007), Tony Was an Ex-Con (2009), Closer to You (2011) The Long Way (2014), Trust The Wire (2017), True Love Waits (2020) Time Stopped (2022) Thoughts and Observations (2024).