Fallon's Town Talk: Excitement building ahead of Easter weekend activities
Maisie de Hora and Isla Mulligan pictured at the launch of Fleadh Cheoil Roscomáin at the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon. Pic: Gerard O’Loughlin
The excitement is building ahead of Easter weekend in Roscommon Town. Along with the religious ceremonies, the Easter Parade is the traditional crowd-puller but this year has the added dimension of the Roscommon branch of Comhaltas hosting Fleadh Cheoil Ros Comáin. The anticipation has been building for some time for what promises to be a fiesta of traditional music across a host of venues in the town.
The festivities would have begun earlier if Ireland were playing Denmark on Tuesday to qualify for the World Cup finals. As it was, it appears a number of pubs in Roscommon Town were heaving last Thursday for Ireland’s sickening penalty shoot-out defeat to Czechia.
The excitement last Thursday was a tantalising glimpse of what it would have been like if Ireland had qualified. It felt like the whole country was fizzing with a sense of anticipation, yearning to celebrate a significant national milestone.
As I wrote in November, it’s time for this generation of young people to enjoy their own ‘Italia 90’ experience. Jack Charlton and that team will always have a special place in the hearts of Irish people but it is time for new heroes to emerge and a new World Cup adventure to enter Irish folklore. It was not to be this year, but, hopefully, this year’s qualifying campaign is the start of a new successful era rather than a once-off fun-filled escapade.
Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke have been deservedly feted in Castlerea and throughout for quite a few years now. Nevertheless, despite both of them reaching the pinnacle of amateur boxing by winning world titles, last Saturday may be remembered as the night they became national celebrities.
When any guest turns up on The Tommy Tiernan Show, nobody knows what to expect. That’s the programme’s fundamental selling-point to differentiate from other chat-shows: the host doesn’t know what guests are going to emerge from behind the curtain.
It was a pleasant surprise to hear the names of the O’Rourke sisters called out but what followed was a delight. Aoife and Lisa proved to be naturals on television and the effortlessness of their double act could turn them into media darlings.
They came across as great fun and Tiernan just let them off; whatever question he asked the sisters answered with aplomb. They could have been in the sitting-room of their home in Tarmon. Not for the first time, Aoife and Lisa proved themselves tremendous ambassadors for Roscommon.
Returning to the musical theme, it’s always fun to have a best-ever songs list. St. Patrick’s Day offered Today FM and RTÉ Gold the chance to conduct votes about the top 100 Irish Songs. Both lists overlapped to a great extent, although the nature of the Today FM poll, which was selected by the listeners, left itself more open to accusations of recency bias.
This was shown when the most popular song of 2025, Kingfishr’s anthem ‘Killeagh’, popped up at No 8. Some musical snobs get annoyed when tunes which capture a certain moment in time finish high in all-time polls, but it’s an inevitable by-product of asking the public to vote. ‘Killeagh’ may prove more enduringly popular than some critics realise.
Surveys about Irish songs used to be a turn-off for me. Going right back to the era of the legendary Fanning Fab 50 in the 1980s, there seemed to be a rule that U2 had to finish top of every RTÉ list.
Today FM’s was a listener poll which provided an insight into the tastes of the modern listening public. It was a surprise that the highest-rated U2 song, the wonderful ‘With or Without You’, finished 10th. In a case of the wheel turning full circle, I thought most of U2’s songs were lower in the ratings than they should have been. At least The Stunning and The Sawdoctors got deserved recognition, although the marvellous but underrated Wexford 1980s outfit, Cry Before Dawn, didn’t have any song in the top 100.
The top slot went to The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ which has become a sporting anthem during this decade. In 2nd and 3rd place were Sinead O’Connor and The Pogues, which may, or may not, have something to do with Sinead and Shane MacGowan dying recently.
At No 1 in the RTÉ Gold list was ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones, which was at No 25 with the Today FM listeners. It’s all a matter of choice and taste, but the best thing to do with these songs is listen to the brilliant music and enjoy.
