Tommy Tiernan Show review: Imelda May says a good gig is 'a beautiful one-night stand'
Imelda May on 'The Tommy Tiernan Show' spoke about her life during the pandemic and how difficult she found that experience.
From Ireland’s youngest priest to a performer who says a good gig is "like sex”, had a diverse selection of guests on Saturday night.
Singer Imelda May spoke about her life during the pandemic and how difficult she found that experience.
“It's been really hard mentally and emotionally because you worked so hard for so many years to get to a certain point and then it just stops,” she said.
“It's been hard for everybody, but I think for the creative industry, we rely on an audience for so much.”
She said she lost some confidence while she was not performing and found it daunting to return to the stage.
“I didn't want to [perform] for a while, I think I lost some confidence, some of the mojo.”
However, the singer says she loves connecting with an audience after spending time alone writing her songs, describing a gig as akin to a one-night stand.
“It doesn’t matter for me the size of the stage, it’s simply about the connection.” @ImeldaOfficial tells @Tommedian performing can be like the most beautiful one night stand.#TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/gUjOXnKR10
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) March 19, 2022
“It doesn't matter for me the size of the stage. It really doesn't matter at all. It's simply about the connection, it’s a relationship each night with me.
"When I'm writing in a room I write selfishly, I write for me, what moves me and I cannot think of an audience when I'm writing it.
“Then when I get up onto the stage, then I think, ‘dear God what have I done?’, because then I'm sharing things that I'm not sure I wanted to.
"I was writing it in a room on my own and now everyone’s watching me and that's when the magic and the connection [happen] and it's like a fizz, you feel it, it starts to bubble during the course of the evening.
“That's why each gig is different, you figure out how they work and what they like, and they do with you.
"Then you come to this beautiful climax together and then you're home. It's like the most beautiful one-night stand.”
Next, Tiernan met the youngest priest in Ireland, 30-year-old Fr David Vard. Fr Vard said he was drawn to the priesthood during Transition Year in secondary school after he volunteered in Lourdes.
“I went and I wasn't going to partake in the faith stuff. I wasn't going to do any of that. But I did,” he said.
“Everything I thought I knew about the church, which is ‘the big bad church’ was really tested because I encountered people who are so compassionate, people who really cared for me and they were caring people who are really sick.”
He said he feels honoured to be part of people’s moments of “celebration and sadness” as part of his role as a priest, including weddings, baptisms, and funerals.
"Moments of celebration and sadness in life, a priest can be there,” he said.
“It's a great privilege and one I never take for granted, to be allowed into these moments of intimacy, to be allowed inside, even during Covid.
"Sometimes I was the only person that was allowed into the room to anoint someone before they died and the family were happy for me to do that because they know that's what their parent would have wanted.
"That was a huge privilege — it's a shame we have to do it but it’s one I would never forget.”
Finally, Áine Ní Bhreisleáin, Siún Ní Dhuinn, and Sinéad Ní Uallacháin from the Beo Ar Eigean podcast spoke to Tiernan about their grá for the Irish language and how anyone can learn to speak it in day-to-day life.
They said the main thing would-be speakers need is time.
“It's like if you ever got into yoga, you realise you have to put the hours into yoga to get to a pure downward dog, to the part that you want to be happy with,” they said.
“And with the Irish language, you can have the infamous cúpla focal and be happy with it, I have no problem with that, but if you want to get to know the language intimately, you need to work at it.
"You need to read books, you need to listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta, you need to watch TG4, you need to be around people who speak Irish all the time.”
