A social media hoax announcing Christy Dignam’s death weeks before he passed away was the first one to ‘really bother him’, his daughter Kiera has told Lunchtime Live.

When the hoax story started doing the rounds towards the end of May, Kiera Dignam was forced to release a statement insisting he was still alive.

She said the family was going through a “tough enough time” already, adding that is was “cruel to be put in a position to have to clear something like this up”.

At the time, Christy was undergoing palliative care for a rare blood disorder cancer that he was first diagnosed with in 2013.

On Lunchtime Live this morning, Kiera said there were numerous hoaxes about her father’s death over the years – but the last one was the only one that ever bothered him.

“I had to ring my Mam and I had to say - because that was going to upset her obviously so - I was like stay off Facebook, stay off everything and then I rang my dad,” she said.

“My dad had a wit and the Dignam’s have a kind of a dark humour so I rang my Da and was like, listen, I'm just letting you know it's online that you’re dead so I’m just double checking that you're not.

“He's like, no, no, I'm not and I was like, right, grand.”

"He was only ever dad to me, and I'm the only one that knows how that felt." @kieradignam tells @andreagilligan about coping with the loss of her father, Christy Dignam. @LunchtimeLiveNT pic.twitter.com/QxbG9msuw4

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) October 9, 2023

Kiera said hoax stories had killed off her father numerous times previously.

“He's died like five or six times previous to this,” she said. “They said he was in plane crashes and stuff, but that time was the one time that actually really bothered him, because it was very real, you know?

“With the kind of plane crashes and things, he could kind of laugh about it and say, ‘Oh I escaped that one and stuff', but this was like, he was in palliative care and this was close to the bone that time.

“So, that's why I felt I had to put up the statement to say, listen, please, it's upsetting my family.”

Kiera Dignam with Andrea Gilligan in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

Kiera said she is really grateful her father got to hear the songs on her new album before he died.

“Everything was ready to go and he heard all the songs on the album, so that meant a lot to me,” she said.

“He would kind of critique me and he would say what he thought might work.

“Now we never agreed and the song that I would want for the single he was like, ‘No, I think this one' but you know, he was never gonna win anyway.”

Christy Dignam gives Kiera Dignam away at her wedding. Image: Supplied.

Kiera said she is still ‘very much in the numb stage’ following Christy’s death, saying she is just trying to take every day as it comes.

“I was under the impression that lasted a few weeks but I'm now, like, it’s 17 weeks tomorrow,” she said.

“I'm thinking, you know, it's 17 weeks now since I last spoke to him and tomorrow will be 17 weeks since he passed and you're kind of you're kind of overcome with those kind of thoughts.

“You're consumed with that still, so it's still extremely early days I think.”

Kiera’s debut album ‘Nepo Baby’ is due for release at the end of the month.

You can listen back to the full interview here: