Wonderful to see RTE mark the recent 100th birthday of John Hemingway DFC. I had the great pleasure of interviewing him, the footage of which features in our series on the Irish who fought in WWII. The coloured photographs featured in the news report were a gift from me to John. A small gesture on my part to mark his very special birthday. A true gentleman!

Thank you John.

I couldn’t let today pass without acknowledging that today marks the anniversary of the death of Ireland’s first global superstar, John Count McCormack. He made over 800 recordings and sold in excess of 200 million records. He was more than a singer of Irish ballads. To this day he is still regarded as one of the 20th century’s finest exponents of the music of Handel and Mozart.  Hope you enjoy his take on Handel’s ‘Come My Beloved’ from Atalanta.

And here’s his performance of ‘Ireland, Mother Ireland’ from his film ‘Song O’ My Heart’, which he made in 1929 for Fox Pictures. He was paid the phenomenal some of $500,000 for six weeks work.

A Big Thank You to Realscreen for choosing ‘The Great Guide to the Future’ as one of its MIPTV Picks for this years event.

Realscreen Article

ITER – The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor currently being built in the South of France.

Just returned from The Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese are an incredibly hospitable and welcoming people. The Robots are pretty friendly too. Just ask Dave, our sound man.

Dave with Pepper. I think it was love at first sight.