The Irish music world is still reeling from the death of Christy Dignam last month, but his band Aslan are planning to pay respect to their late frontman in their own way.

Dignam passed away at his Dublin home last month at the age of 63, following a long illness.

Now Aslan are planning to release the final song they recorded with Dignam - a cover of 'The Fields of Athenry' - as a single this Thursday.

Guitarist Billy McGuinness discussed losing his bandmate and friend in a radio interview with East Coast FM, saying: "It’s like he’s there playing the songs with us.

"After 40 years together... on a personal level, I thought Christy was invincible. He had been sick for 12, 13 years - and all throughout that illness he was still performing with Aslan."

He revealed that the band intend to continue following Dignam's death and that they recently played together for the first time in two years, describing it as being "like therapy". "I expected Christy to walk through the rehearsal room doors," he said. "Christy had a habit of being late for rehearsals, so we were in there and I was saying I was expecting the phone to go and Christy to say ‘Look, I have a puncture’, da da da. He always had a great excuse for being late."

'The Fields of Athenry' is the first ballad that the band have recorded, with McGuinness calling Dignam's vocals "one of the best" he's ever head. "I don’t know if I’m just saying that because he has passed," he said, "but I think it’s a fantastic version."

Meanwhile, Dignam's daughter Kiera has responded to the comments made by Dave Fanning on air following her father's death, which caused a major backlash and a flood of complaints to RTE.

The 2FM DJ later apologised for what he called "ill-timed" comments made during an interview on Claire Byrne's radio show, but Kiera revealed in an interview with the Sunday World over the weekend that he had not personally reached out to apologise.

"We were just beginning to grieve, so I hadn’t heard anything about it until people said it to me, and I listened back. I felt a lot of things, but I made a conscious effort to not give him any airtime," she said. "I think there’s always going to be stuff like that with people’s opinions and I just have to make a decision that I either let things wind me up or I just don’t give people that power. And that’s what I chose to do – I chose not to give people that power."

She added: "I have more important things to worry about and deal with at the moment, so I wouldn’t be giving him or anyone else with negative comments any more airtime. We’re just trying to deal with our personal crap."