SINGER Danny O'Donoghue has invited Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga to support The Script in Dublin after they departed Ed Sheeran's Loop tour.
The acts, as well as American singer-songwriter Finneas O'Connell and Danish band Lukas Graham, quit the tour after Macklemore was dropped for expressing his support for Palestine.
O'Donoghue praised their bravery and said both Irish acts were welcome to support The Script when the band plays two dates at the 3Arena next month.
He also spoke about heading back on tour to support their latest album, The User's Guide to Being Human, which is their second since the death of guitarist Mark Sheehan in 2023.
Appearing on Friday's The Late Late Show, O'Donoghue was quizzed by host Patrick Kielty on how he felt about venue owners trying to censor performers in the wake of the Sheeran issue.
"I'm a massive believer in free speech," said the 45-year-old frontman.
"The Irish acts that came off the tour — Aaron Rowe, he's a lovely guy, and Beoga as well — they showed immense backbone.
"Particularly starting off because he [Rowe] is playing stadiums in America and for him to come off that at such a young age, I think 'more power to him'.
"But I will say this down the lens to you Aaron and Beoga as well — The Script are playing the 3Arena on the dates that you were supposed to play Tampa.
"If you want to come, if you want to support, then The Script are there for you, you're more than welcome to come down."
'Devastation' of Sheehan's death
Talking about The Script's new album, O'Donoghue revealed how Sheehan's influence was still felt in their work, three years after he died following a short illness at the age of 46.
The singer said that following a dark period in the aftermath, he was now enjoying life and planned to take time off after the upcoming tour to prioritise himself and his family.
"Obviously Mark isn't here but we kind of kept him around with us and the energy and the air of him was in the studio," he said.
"He had a guitar, this red Hummingbird, a beautiful guitar, kind of fiery and full of songs, quite like him.
"I always stayed away from it but on this album, I picked it up one day and I just started playing it and songs started to come out of it.
"I'm a big believer in that there's always a certain amount of songs that you can have in an instrument and I think his guitar has a lot more songs still left to write.
"So I really feel him. I felt him a lot on my shoulder this time around writing."
He added: "I think on our last album, Satellites, you can hear me coming through a really difficult time, not really knowing what to do.
"There's so many people that depend on us as a band as well and just to kind of motor on and keep on going through was the only thing that I could think of doing at the time.
"Obviously battling addictions and grief and everything, you keep on coming through the fire of Hell and you come out and you start to see Heaven.
"Where I am now is a really great space. I haven't drank in about three years, I got married.
"You'll never get over the devastation of something like that [Sheehan's death] but you can start to be optimistic about the future, which you need to do."
He continued: "I think after this [tour], in March, I'm going to take a nice long break because we've been hard at it now for nearly 20 years.
"I'm going to concentrate on my family and take some time out so it'll be a good time to catch us.
"I'm always thinking when you're working on a project and you've got something that's coming down the road, you're not really in the moment, living there — you're always planning on what you're going to do.
"So this time I'm just going to take it all in on stage and just enjoy every moment of it because like I said, tomorrow's not promised anybody."
The Script's tour kicks off with two dates at the 3Arena in Dublin on October 30 and 31 before heading to Belfast on November 2.
The band then plays 12 dates around Britain before heading for Europe and beyond, with the tour closing in Singapore on March 31, 2027.
Everything from irishpost.com and the print edition is available on the Irish Post App — plus more! Download it for Android or Apple IOS devices today.
See More: Danny O'Donoghue, Ed Sheeran, The Script
