Is This Where Riverdance Really Started?

L

Lex Foutish

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I was trawling through Youtube a few nights ago and came across Cathal Dunne's "Happy Man." It was our Eurovision entry in 1979. All of us in Cork were really up for it, at the time, because Cathal was Taoiseach Jack Lynch's nephew.

It was held in Israel and the Israeli tv channel did a national feature on each country before its entry was performed. Their Irish feature is at the start of the Youtube clip. It's hilarious and got me wondering if Riverdance's roots or inspiration go all the way back to that night . . . ;)

Enjoy!
 
Damn, that's a catchy tune :D
Stuck in my head now

As for the clothes, shaking my head
The seventies, the decade that style forgot

And what am I watching here. Dwarves dancing? :confused:
 
Cork looking well in the video
Is he on top of some castle or tower after the one minute mark? Is that a castle?

How did this lad not win yet Johnny Logan won the next year???
No doubt the Corkonians feel hard done by, world is against them, persecution complex :p
 
Is he still around in the city like?

In fairness Lex we could have seen a bit more of the city. The clip was fairly limited.

Marion
 
micmclo said:
Cork looking well in the video
Is he on top of some castle or tower after the one minute mark? Is that a castle?

How did this lad not win yet Johnny Logan won the next year???
No doubt the Corkonians feel hard done by, world is against them, persecution complex :p
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I'm almost certain that's Blackrock Castle, Micmclo. He's in UCC and coming out of Shandon as well.

And, yes, we did feel very hard done by that year but we blamed the Israelis for punishing Jack Lynch's government for being pro Palestinian. ;)
 
He should re-release the song
Is he still around these days?

We sure could do with a bit of cheer these days

Nothing wrong with a bit of retro, sure Abba are rich as can be and still selling plenty
 
Marion said:
Is he still around in the city like?

In fairness Lex we could have seen a bit more of the city. The clip was fairly limited.

Marion
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He must be around alright, Marion. I was stopped at traffic lights at Turners Cross last week and there was a concert poster of his on display on a wall there.

The clip is a probably a little limited, I suppose, but, they probably could only squeeze so much of the Beautiful City into a few minutes.

If I were producing it, I'd have him tearing into a pork salad sandwich and a pint of Cork's finest in a particular hostelry inside in Town. ;)
 
micmclo said:
He should re-release the song
Is he still around these days?

We sure could do with a bit of cheer these days

Nothing wrong with a bit of retro, sure Abba are rich as can be and still selling plenty
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm a bit of a retro head myself too. I spend a few hours every week digging up a few gems on Youtube. Watch this space . . . . . . .
 
Wonder if he got selected with his connections in high places ;)

Reminds me of when John O'Donoghue was Minster for Sports, Arts and Tourism. And the bull was well known for showering the money on his favoured Kerry projects

His niece was entered in Rose of Tralee
A fix I tell ya, she was guaranteed to win. Sure the bull has huge pull in Kerry, he'll tell them to fix it

I put two weeks wages on her to win it and told everyone to back her.

Lost :(
Lived on beans and noodles for the next while, bad times

Damn politician. He fixes everything else in Kerry and was always pulling in favours.
But when I needed him to be corrupt he failed me
 
Seems his minions let him down at that time as well as not remembering that he built them his community centre.

Marion
 
Marion said:
What's it called again the "Enda Inn" or something like that? ;)

Marion
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Something like that! Actually I think Enda was in Cork tonight. I passed the City Hall around half 9 and there were a lot of motor cycle cops there. Someone said that Enda was in there. He'd only have had to walk a few hundred yards to sample the aforementioned delights. :)
 
micmclo said:
Wonder if he got selected with his connections in high places ;)

Reminds me of when John O'Donoghue was Minster for Sports, Arts and Tourism. And the bull was well known for showering the money on his favoured Kerry projects

His niece was entered in Rose of Tralee
A fix I tell ya, she was guaranteed to win. Sure the bull has huge pull in Kerry, he'll tell them to fix it

I put two weeks wages on her to win it and told everyone to back her.

Lost :(
Lived on beans and noodles for the next while, bad times

Damn politician. He fixes everything else in Kerry and was always pulling in favours.
But when I needed him to be corrupt he failed me
Click to expand...

I actually half know him and meet him around Kerry now and again. I had a few pints in his company a few times. A very entertaining man. By total coincidence, I was close by in Cork Airport when Ryanair refused to allow him board the flight to Dublin because he didn't have proper ID. Sometimes all the power in the world is no use to ya!
 
No wonder he was fond of using the government jet so

And I think I've ruined the Happy Man thread with my talk of the bull

So get onto Cathal there and have him release it again, number one for sure
 
Lex Foutish said:
The funniest part was that he came out the door of the airport and hopped into the State car and was driven straight to Dublin.
Click to expand...

I'm totally shocked by this revelation.

I'm surprised he didn't request a State airplane/helicopter - oops maybe Martin Cullen or Mary Harney had already commissioned it at the time.

Marion
 
Or Bertie who wasn't happy about being landed in air corp HQ in Baldonnel
So would instruct them to land in Dublin airport so he could be home in Drumcondra quickly

And then the air corp plane has to fly back to Baldonnel

Costs thousands and thousands to fuel and maintain these jets every hour.
All that money so someone gets home twenty minutes earlier
 
micmclo said:
No wonder he was fond of using the government jet so

And I think I've ruined the Happy Man thread with my talk of the bull

So get onto Cathal there and have him release it again, number one for sure
Click to expand...

Yes, let's get back on thread.

Now, Micmclo, wasn't Jack Lynch a great Taoiseach . . . . . . . ?
 
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