Caroline O'Donoghue: 'I still watch Riverdance’s interval act performance from 1994 about, oooh, ten times a year'
It was the Eurovision last weekend. I didn’t watch it this year. My relationship with the Eurovision is a forever fluctuating thing. I’m either in the mood or I’m not. Like water parks or meeting your friend’s new baby, you can feel positively about something and still have to psych yourself up for how full-on it’s going to be. There have been years where I have screamed for the victory of a country I have never heard of, but there have also been years where I have been completely unaware of the Eurovision even happening.
I do have a feeling about the Eurovision, however, that never changes. I still watch Riverdance’s interval act performance from 1994 about, oooh, ten times a year. I have made my English friends watch it countless times, roundly baffling them each time. “Where are they all coming from?” they ask, as yet more dancers appear as if from nowhere. “What is with his shirt?” they bleat. And: “Can all Irish people just do this?” I like showing it to people, but most of all, I like to sit alone in my house and watch it to make myself cry. Then I text my sister, who will then watch it again, and cry, again.
