RTE Nationwide Interview

I spent a wonderful day recently walking through the area in Dublin where I grew up and began to sing in what was to turn out as a lifetime singing career.

My interviewer on the day was the wonderful Mary Kennedy. So easy to talk to and her personality is a natural for her chosen profession.

We started at the Good Counsel School then on to the Community Hall where I started to sing at age of 12. I had been singing before then starting around 10 but this was in my area in a brand new Community Hall and a capacity Monday night audience each week.

We then went to the Church where I used to sing at Weddings and where I met my first singing teach Dal McNulty who was playing the organ that day and suggested to my mother that I should have some singing lessons.

In the afternoon we sat in the Dress Circle of the Gaiety theatre where Mary asked me about my time there.

In particular she asked about Moonlight and Roses. A very nostalgic cameo piece about a young girl who is going for an audition in a theatre and she bumps into one of the cleaners. They end up by singing Moonlight and Roses together. It was a huge success the first night we performed it and became a nationwide favourite when it was later televised. The Cleaner in this cameo was the very talented and unique Maureen Potter. We had wanted to work together for a while so when Ursula Doyle the Producer of Gaels of Laughter where Maureen and myself were appearing in came up with this idea we jumped at it. We had no idea that it would take on a life of its own and remain so vivid in people’s memories to this day.

The day itself was another wonderful memory for me to treasure and add to all the rest and to have spent it with such a professional and lovely person as Mary.

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