On a Monday evening in Dublin, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl stopped at a Ballsbridge restaurant to greet diners and staff, a small and ordinary kindness that carried a long shadow for one Sligo woman in the room. Carmel Breheny, who was there with a friend, had a brother whose quiet craft had lit many stages, and whose final professional chapter had been with this same band. Her brother, the lighting designer known as Joe Lights, died in 2009 at 42, having been forced by cancer to miss the band's European tour. The meeting, as she told it, was a moment in which a loss and a fan's chance en
Dave Grohl Meets Dublin Fan Whose Late Brother Once Toured With Foo Fighters
Carmel Breheny's brother, lighting designer Joe Lights, died in 2009 aged 42 after cancer treatment, having missed the band's European tour while ill.
Things come full circle when that happens.
Mark
Why does a restaurant photo get this much attention?
Mimi
Because of what Carmel brought to the table. Her brother, a lighting designer known as Joe Lights, had his last job with the Foo Fighters before he died in 2009.
Mark
He missed part of that tour, didn't he?
Mimi
The European leg. He was being treated for cancer. He died at 42, and she says he was gutted to miss it.
Mark
And the music came back at his funeral.
Mimi
Yes. His remains were returned to Sligo, as he wished, and the last song at the graveside was a Foo Fighters song.
Luke
Let me mark what we actually know. All of this comes from Carmel herself, speaking to the Irish Independent.
Mark
So the connection is her account.
Luke
Right. It's a credible personal story, but nothing independent confirms the details of her brother's work or the song at the funeral.
Mimi
And Grohl seems not to have known any of it. He was just being gracious to diners and staff.
Luke
Which is worth saying plainly. There's no word from the band, so we can't say what he'd make of it.
Mark
Then the weight of it is Carmel's.
Mimi
Exactly. She said it felt like things coming full circle.
Le Pouls
- A chance meeting at a Dublin bistro turns into an unexpected collision with a family's grief.
- Lighting designer Joe Lights was forced off the Foo Fighters tour by cancer and never got to finish the job.
- His sister Carmel describes the encounter as a way for things to come full circle, years after his 2009 death.
- The story rests entirely on her account to the Irish Independent, and the band has said nothing about the evening.
On a Monday evening in Dublin, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl stopped at a Ballsbridge restaurant to greet diners and staff, a small and ordinary kindness that carried a long shadow for one Sligo woman in the room. Carmel Breheny, who was there with a friend, had a brother whose quiet craft had lit many stages, and whose final professional chapter had been with this same band. Her brother, the lighting designer known as Joe Lights, died in 2009 at 42, having been forced by cancer to miss the band's European tour. The meeting, as she told it, was a moment in which a loss and a fan's chance encounter seemed to touch, and the band itself has offered no word on the evening.
On Monday evening, Dave Grohl sat down to dinner at Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge. He did not stay at his table. He stopped to greet diners and staff and posed for photographs with them, and among those in the room was Carmel Breheny from Sligo, out for dinner with a friend. She met him there and later shared a photograph online.
What she carried into that room was personal. Her brother, widely known as 'Joe Lights', was a lighting designer whose last job had been with the Foo Fighters. Cancer forced him to miss the band's European tour, and he died in 2009, aged 42. He had loved the work and often said the band was among the nicest acts he had ever toured with.
The band was present at his funeral too. His remains were brought home to Sligo as he had wished, and the last song played at the graveside was a Foo Fighters track.
Meeting Grohl by chance, Carmel told the Irish Independent, felt like the right time and the right place. She said he was warm, charming and patient with fans who were, in her words, literally abducting him for a moment. There is no sign Grohl knew of her brother's connection, and the band has not commented.
On Monday evening, Dave Grohl sat down to dinner at Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The Foo Fighters frontman did not keep to his table. He stopped to greet other diners and the staff, and he posed for pictures with them.
One of the people in the room was Carmel Breheny, from Sligo, who was having dinner with a friend. She met Grohl in the restaurant, and she took a photograph that she later posted on Twitter. What neither of them knew, at least as far as the account shows, was how closely the encounter touched her family.
Carmel's brother had worked in the music industry as a lighting designer. He was widely known as 'Joe Lights'. His last job before he died was with the Foo Fighters.
He did not get to finish what he started with them. He was being treated for cancer and had to miss the European leg of the band's tour. He died in 2009, aged 42. Carmel told the Irish Independent that he was gutted to be missing it, because he loved working with the band.
She said he had toured with an awful lot of acts over the years, and that he always described the Foo Fighters as one of the nicest to be on the road with.
The band also figured in his funeral. Joe's remains were repatriated to Sligo, as he had wished. At the graveside, Carmel said, the last song the family played was a Foo Fighters song.
So meeting Grohl by chance, she told the paper, felt like the right time and the right place. She said Grohl would never know how much it meant to her, and that it felt as though things had come full circle.
Of the encounter itself, she was warm. She said Grohl was as nice as he could have been, and charming, and remarkably patient for a man who was, in her words, literally being abducted by people like her.
The account rests on Carmel Breheny's own telling to the Irish Independent. Nothing has been reported from the band about the evening, and there is no indication Grohl knew of her brother's connection when he stopped for the photograph.
Citations marquantes
He always said that the Foo Fighters were one of the nicest to be on tour with.— Carmel Breheny, to the Irish Independent
Dave Grohl will never know how much it meant to her, and it felt like things came full circle.— Carmel Breheny, paraphrased from her Irish Independent interview
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