“SO my record is broken!”
I am on the phone to Cathal Dunne in the USA, to date the only Cork singer ever to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest, and breaking the news to him that we finally have another entrant from the Rebel County.
Bambie Thug, of Macroom, won the Eurosong contest last week to earn the right to fly the flag for Ireland in Malmo in May, and Cathal is overjoyed at the news.
“I’ll be watching Bambie with interest - my record is broken,” said Cathal. “I’m happy that it’s a Cork person. I’m with Bambie all the way!”
Cathal, aged 72, both wrote and sang his song, Happy Man, at the 1979 contest in Israel. Doing both was “highly unusual” at the time, he says, and he finished a highly creditable fifth,
When I tell him the 2024 Cork entry is dark and gothic, dabbles in witchcraft lyrics, and is called Doomsday Blue, he replies: “I’m getting old! It’s a slight difference to Happy Man then!
You can say that again.
A sample lyric from Cathal’s cheery number:
I’m in love and I’m alive – happy man
Got the sun inside – happy man
I’ve got a girl on my mind
Love in my heart – happy man
And some sample lyrics from Doomsday Blue:
Avada Kedavra, I speak to destroy
The feelings I have, I cannot avoid
Through twisted tongues, a hex deployed on you
I, I, I know you’re living a lie
I, I, I see the scars in your eyes
You might expect Cathal, a product of the showband era, to rail against Bambie’s very dark, modern song. But, although he hadn’t heard it when we spoke and was even unaware Cork had won Eurosong, he had nothing but praise and support for the 2024 entrant.
Cathal also showed a lot of understanding of modern conventions for a man of 72, telling me when I explained that Bambie identified as they/them: “Ah, Bambie is non-binary?
“It takes a lot of guts and commitment to do Eurovision,” he added.
I will be watching them with interest in May when my record as the only Cork act so far is broken.
“I hear and support the Irish Eurovision song and watch it on RTÉ here every year. I hope Bambie presents themself very well for a whole different Ireland.”
Bambie has suffered some trials since winning Eurosong, attracting negative comments online about the song, image, and non-binary stance.
Although unaware of this, Cathal makes some prescient comments when I ask him for any advice he can give to Bambie.
“Don’t listen to the begrudgers and knockers,” he says. “They have always been there. Although something tells me this Bambie can handle it.
And don’t change a thing about yourself. That is what has got you this far, so don’t change anything.
Cathal acknowledges Eurovision has changed a lot since his day.
“The songs now need a strong presentation, shocks and sensations,” he reflects.
I tell him Bambie Thug has those in abundance, and should produce a memorable stage show in Sweden. Plus, Bambie’s father is from Stockholm, which might garner some local support.
Cathal also has a connection to Stockholm.
“I went there every year for a month, for 14 years,” he says. I can tell a dirty joke in Swedish!
He was at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest held in Stockholm, following on from Abba’s 1974 win with Waterloo, when Ireland were represented by The Swarbriggs, with That’s What Friends Are For.
Four years later, in 1979, Cathal entered with his song Happy Man, and became the only person from Cork to represent Ireland in the 56 contests thus far - a remarkably poor run given the importance of music and song on Leeside.
Cathal, a nephew of Jack Lynch, recalls that the GAA legend who at the time was Taoiseach was the first person to call him when he won the Irish sing-off.
“Jack won all those medals and I could never kick a ball straight to save my life!
But when I got to the Green Room at RTÉ after winning the Eurovision sing-off, he was the first call I got. We spoke to each other in Irish and he said ‘Congratulations, I never knew you could sing like that’.
Representing Ireland was a “truly amazing experience and a cool honour,” says Cathal, who has admitted to having had a brandy or two before going on stage that night to calm his nerves.
The 1979 contest was in Israel and, depressingly, strife was an issue for that country then and now, with calls for the country to be ousted from this year’s contest while their attacks on Gaza continue.
Cathal says: “The Eurovision in Jerusalem in 1979 was held after President Jimmy Carter and the leaders of Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty.”
Security was incredibly tight and he says it was almost written in the stars that Israel would win it that year, with Hallelujah by Milk And Honey. “Timing is important at Eurovision,” adds Cathal, who lives in Pittsburg but is talking to me from Florida where he is performing and enjoying some winter sun.
He once admitted in an interview: “If I had made a balls of it that night, I’d have had to join the Israeli army!”
The Corkman, who had seen off competition from the likes of Red Hurley and Johnny Logan to qualify in 1979, was third for most of the voting but ended up slipping to fifth.
A year later, Johnny Logan won it for Ireland with What’s Another Year, and Cathal is a big fan of his, and also of Colm Wilkinson, who came fifth for Ireland at the 1978 song contest.
Cathal was born in 1951 and grew up in Douglas. He attended the Model School at Anglesea Street and, ignoring sports pursuits, went to Cork School of Music. Later, at UCC, he was tutored by the great Seán Ó Riada.
Cathal’s mother, Rena, who died in 2006, aged 86, was a sister of Jack Lynch, and Cathal’s father Gerard was a principal of College of Commerce in Cork, who later went on to spearhead adult education in the city. On the night their son was on Eurovision, Rena and Gerard were at a wedding at the Metropole Hotel, and briefly slipped away from the reception to watch him on TV.
Cathal, a proud Corkman and Irishman, left for America at the height of recession in 1983, but still misses the place - “especially the craic” - he tours Ireland twice a year, staying at the Trident in Kinsale.
He has also turned his hand to writing, and written a love story set in the Famine, called Athenry, which is available to buy on Amazon.
Read More
"Send this Rebel to Eurovision!," declares Cork hopeful Bambie More in this section
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