Cliff Richard’s biggest Irish super fan said he is heartbroken he may never get the chance to meet him again due to Covid-19 - as the singer celebrates his 80th birthday today.
Dubliner Mark Cunningham has made a name for himself as the veteran singer’s biggest supporter, and has even gained celebrity status among other devoted fans.
However, having missed out on getting his concert fix this year due to coronavirus, and the singer getting older, the Dublin Airport security man fears he has missed his chance to properly meet his idol.
In a special birthday message for Cliff, he told Irish Daily Mirror: “I just really want to wish him a happy birthday. I’ve been a fan all my life, right from the start.”
“He’s turning 80 [today], and the last time my motivation was to try and meet him but I don’t think I could even try that because he’s not coming to Dublin and even if he was, I don’t think he’d be able to do that with everything going on.”
The 45-year-old explained he had a brief meeting with the singer in 2018 when his girlfriend of four years, Louise, surprised him with a trip his his vineyard in the Algarve.
But fighting for his attention amongst thousands of other fans on the day, he said he still longs for the day he can introduce himself properly.
“I think that was my chance to meet him at the Vineyards a couple of years ago, I don’t think I’ll ever get the chance to meet him again.
“But you never know. That would be amazing if some day I could.. But with everything at the minute.. [may never happen].
“I don’t think we will see him in Dublin again, as I say, he’s 80. But mostly over the past 10 years i’ve been travelling to England to see him.
“Even with the vineyard, he met 1,400 fans so it was literally, blink and you miss it. Arm around for the photograph and gone. He was getting hundreds and thousands of them.”
He added: “Originally my mam came to all the concerts, but she has Parkinsons now, so if he plays Dublin, she’d come, but he doesn’t do that anymore so she will probably never get to see him again.”
Sir Cliff is one of the most successful musicians ever, having sold more than 250 million records worldwide.
And having attended over 100 concerts, and spent a fortune over the years to establish the biggest Cliff collection he could get, the Balbriggan man said he will always back his man, especially in times of strife.
Recalling when the star faced false sex abuse slurs, Mark, who set up a fan page with almost 17,000 followers to support the singer said: “I backed him all the way.
“It was horrible, we knew it wasn’t true and just a scandal and I have a Facebook page that I set up with almost 17,000 people on it.
“It’s called Cliff Richards fans, so nobody believed it was true. It was just a matter of time that he was going to be cleared, we never worried, and I went to see him twice during that.
“He was still doing concerts.”
