“As I write I don’t know if the weather will allow the rescheduled match to go ahead, but they’re brave or foolish heads in the GAA if they take a chance on dragging thousands of people to Thurles on a Tuesday night with the chance of the game being called off again.”
That was my comment on the refixed Kilkenny/Tipperary match, due to be played last Tuesday in Thurles, only to be called off for a second time. I’m thinking of setting up a little business offering weather forecasts to the GAA and other sporting organisations for a modest fee.
Hopefully it’ll be third time lucky next Sunday when they line out in Thurles again. I don’t think there’s much chance of the match being cancelled again, but there’s likely to be some rain, so bring the umbrella along. Actually this weather forecasting business isn’t very hard, just Google ‘Thurles weather’ and up pops the weather forecast. It could have saved a lot of time and hardship on a cold and dark Tuesday night.
The winner is...
I can’t really comment on the goings on in that All-Ireland Talent Show as I haven’t watched many of the performers. It’s a bit like the Eurovision, where the voting is the most entertaining part of the show.
It was a bit of a nail biter last Sunday, but well done to Na Fianna for getting through to the final. I’ll have to remember to get dialling for the final.
I don’t really know what to make of the show, with gymnastic troops, marching bands, singing toddlers and pensioners all competing for the big prize. What happens to the performers afterwards? There’s a good pub quiz question: Name the winners of the previous All Ireland Talent Competition.
A good Saturday
I watched the Ireland/England match in the home of Kilkenny rugby, The Tholsel Bar, last Saturday. You need to know your rugby before commenting on the match in this setting, so I left it to a Kerry man and oval ball expert, Sean Keane, to guide me through the more obscure rules of the game.
Amid cries of “Offside,” “He’s coming in from the side” and less frequently, “will you have another pint?”, we watched the unfolding excitement and nailbiting finish.
Next stop was the Watergate Theatre where Pat Shortt was performing for two nights to packed houses. Over three hundred people came out on the street with smiles on their faces, so that can’t be a bad thing. I had a short Pat Shortt chat after the show before he headed off to his pub in Castlemartyr, near Cork. I’ll have to make a detour next time I’m in the Cork area.
Oscar fever
I bumped into Paul Young from Cartoon Saloon at lunch last Friday. He was leaving the next day for Los Angeles for the Oscar ceremonies. It’s exciting times for Paul, Tomm Moore and the rest of the crew. Lunches with Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges are all part of the routine at the moment.
Will they win? Paul doesn’t think so, but stranger things have happened. It might be worth putting on a few euros if the odds are right.
Whatever about Los Angeles, Paul is already a winner in his home town of Boyle, Co Roscommon, where a banner is in place across the main street wishing him luck. That’s almost as good as getting the Oscar statuette.
The speech is always a tricky part of the ceremony. Paul tells me they have strict instructions on what they can and cannot say.
That hasn’t stopped people putting their foot in it in the past. When Tom Hanks won for Philadelphia he was so grateful to his drama teacher that he decided to tell the whole nation his teacher was ‘one of the finest gay Americans’. Even though his drama teacher had not told anyone he was gay.
I’ve had a look at some clips of previous Oscars to pass on some tips and the best advice I can give is just to keep it short and try not to cry. I still remember Gwyneth Paltrow, who, in between the floods of tears managed to thank half the movie industry and her family, including her grandfather, Buster, when she won for ‘Shakespeare In Love.’
Another previous clip I came across was of Angelina Jolie for ‘Girl Interrupted,’ announcing that she was in love with her brother: “And I'm so in love with my brother right now, he just held me and said he loved me.” Not sure how he felt about that.
I doubt if I’ll stay up to watch the whole extravaganza, but I’ll be listening to the early news for the results. There’s a bit too much hysteria going on, or as Warren Beatty put it one year, “we want to thank all of you for watching us congratulate ourselves tonight.”
