Hello and welcome
to this week’s Ireland’s Own April Spring Special.

This week we are delighted to feature a man who has been bringing smiles to our faces for many years, Tipperary’s finest, Pat Shortt! As he prepares to do some shows in Australia, Pat tells Maxi about his life and career and pays tribute to the talent of his late comedy partner, Jon Kenny. Maxi also chats to much-loved balladeer Ralph McTell, who is coming to play some concerts in Ireland in the coming weeks.

Maolsheachlann Ó Ceallaigh takes a look at the origins of the jokes Irish people grew up listening to … and sharing in his piece on ‘Paddy the Englishman, Paddy the Scotsman and Paddy the Irishman’. As the anniversary of sinking of the Titanic approaches, Colm Wallace tells of the fate of its owner J. Bruce Ismay who found something of a sanctuary in his new home in Connemara.

The mid-1960s was a transformative time for music in this country when rock ‘n’ roll transcended borders and crossed into hearts and minds of young people, writes Claire Keogh as she recalls when The Rolling Stones played in Ireland sixty years ago. Niall Holohan tells us how a stranger’s declaration in an Enniscorthy pub inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel ‘Kidnapped’.

We are all probably somewhat guilty of not listening enough to our parents as we grow up and move into adulthood. Seamus and Sean Kelly are brothers from Co. Kildare who are both retired with a bit of time to write and think back a little. Seamus lives in Leixlip, Sean lives in Portlaoise. You will certainly spot something that you have said before in their piece ‘The Sayings of Mam and Dad’.

Pauline Murphy recalls how it is 100 years since Donegalman Patsy Gallacher scored most famous goal in Glasgow Celtic’s history! In his piece on the making of Easter-time film ‘The Mission’ John Scally champions the religious epic and reveals which Irish actor Lord David Puttnam claims to be “the finest he ever worked with”.

Joe Cushnan looks back on the last broadcast of the original Goon Show, and also remembers its creator, Spike Milligan. Niall McAuliffe tells the story of ‘Little Nellie of Holy God’. In his ‘Irish Preists’ series Maolsheachlann Ó Ceallaigh recalls healing priest Fr. Peter Rookey, whose appearances in Ireland caused something close to hysteria while Denis J. Hickey charts the history of County Meath town, Trim, which was once intended to be Ireland’s capital.

In ‘The Barbary Pirates and the Sack of Baltimore, John Joe McGinley recalls the night 107 men, women and children were stolen from the Cork townwhile in his occasional Great Remakes series, Mick Jordan takes a look behind the scenes of a western favourite … ‘Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven’.

The man often referred to as the father of ‘Country and Irish’ music was born 100 years ago. He wrote hits for the likes of Daniel O’Donnell, Big Tom, Larry Cunningham, Brian Coll and more. Henry Wymbs remembers Johnny McCauley. Maxi remembers the hugely popular entertainer, Jimmy O’Dea, who once shared top billing on the big screen with Sean Connery, on the Diamond Anniversary of his death.

Luke Bradley profiles Irishman William Lamport, known as ‘The Wexford Zorro’, who was a forerunner of independence and has been immortalised with a statue below the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City. Paul Clarke recalls how forty years ago World Snooker had a new champion in Tyrone’s Dennis Taylor. Martin Gleeson remembers the great ‘Pecker Dunne’ as a special celebration in his honour gets under way in Wexford town. Brian Murphy writes about Karl Spindler and the German Connection to the Easter Rising.

We have all this for you to enjoy alongside regular favourites Mary Kennedy, Cassidy, Dan Conway, Kitty the Hare, Miss Flanagan, Patrick O’Sullivan, Just A Memory, Catch the Criminal, Stranger Than Fiction, jokes, songs, puzzles, competitions, Pen Friends, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Owen’s Club, Learn to Draw with Don Conroy, Readers’ Letters, short stories, Great Irish Landmarks, The Ballad Sheet, June McDonnell’s Irish Music Diary, Eddie Lenihan, GAA Greats, the Great Europeans, the Films of Elvis Presley, Wild Geese, the Bookshelf featuring a new book on Muhammad Ali in Ireland and much more.

I hope that you enjoy this week’s issue and don’t forget that part ten of our Birth of a Nation series ‘The Story of 1925’ is now also on sale.

Until next week, take care.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Best wishes, Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own