Tommy Tiernan Show recap: Dermot Kennedy on new music and renovating a house in 'the middle of nowhere'
Joining Tiernan as the first guest of the night, Kennedy touched on everything from making music to growing up in Dublin, his home in the middle of nowhere, and how he ended up playing football for a time in New York. Picture: The Tommy Tiernan Show/RTE One.
Singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy has spoken about his new music, how he brings his loved ones’ experiences to life through his songwriting, and renovating a house in a remote part of Dublin.
The Dubliner, who rose to fame following the release of his popular singles and was speaking on on Saturday night.
Joining Tiernan as the first guest of the night, Kennedy touched on everything from making music to touring, growing up in Dublin, and how he ended up playing football for a time in New York.
He discussed the honour of playing with the Cranberries’ Michael and Noel Hogan in the 3Arena for the 50th anniversary celebrations of Hot Press magazine earlier this year.
Kennedy, who also played with them at Electric Picnic last year, marvelled at the quality of their songs, as well as the emotional impact the band has had on fans.
“I think I spent most of my time up there marvelling at how good the songs are, genuinely, in particular. I look out at fans and just how much it means to them after all these years. And, you know, I do that with my own music, and I see different reactions and stuff, but you can see, with the Cranberries tunes, it's just effortless,” he said.
Touching on his fame, and asked by Tiernan if he is big in other parts of the world, Kennedy modestly replied: “Not really.”
He touched on some of the larger gigs he has played in the States, revealing to Tiernan that he played on a football team called the New York Shamrocks while spending some time recording in the city.
“I bumped into a guy in a pub, we started talking about football, and he knew a guy I used to play with in Crumlin in Dublin who is now playing in New York. So that was my link,” he said.
Reflecting on his songwriting process, he opened up about his focus on personal experiences, love, and loss and how he brings the experiences of those in his life on stage with him.
“I feel very nostalgic when I write, you know, I feel like, when I think about the time I spend with my friends and all that sort of stuff. But also, what I think is quite interesting now is, if my circle is very small, say family and close friends, what I'm always conscious of is I'm the one that has this outlet to write about it and go sing and tour and all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“I've seen my mother go through a good day, or anybody go through a bad day, and we all have these feelings, but I have this lovely outlet, so in the least sort of trite way possible, I do truly believe I bring them on stage with me in a way, and I sing from their perspective. And that can be very meaningful for me."
Kennedy spoke about his “idyllic” upbringing in a remote part of Dublin and attending school in Rathcoole, reflecting on his gratitude for the friendships he made back then.
“I'm very lucky. I think about it, you know, like at that age, such a crucial time in your life, and I took an awful lot for granted, and I think about my friendships being that solid, and [a] huge part of who I am now, I would say,” he said.
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When asked by Tiernan if his fame feels “weird”, Kennedy replied: “I live in the middle of nowhere. I don't come into town much. And if I leave the country, I can kind of go wherever I like. If I'm walking through London, I might bump into two people who kind of say, I like your music. It's never weird. Touch wood. That's what I'm saying about having huge songs and a huge career — maybe it's a sweet spot where I'm at.”
A fan of when younger, Kennedy, who is currently renovating his home in a remote part of Dublin, said he’d like it to be “as hobbit-y as you can get it so within the planning permission”.
Tiernan’s second guests of the night were sisters Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke from Roscommon.
Best known for boxing, the pair said they also dip their toes in a bit of Hyrox and Gaelic football.
They spoke about their boxing careers, how they first got involved in the sport and how they both fell in love with it and went on to win silver at world champions in their respective weight divisions.
The sisters, who come from a family of five girls, said that while they didn’t grow up in a boxing family, they “probably got a bit of fighting skills growing up”.
Lisa, who won the gold medal in the light middleweight division at the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Istanbul, said that she was inspired by Aoife to try the sport.
“Aoife went in, her friends were doing it, and went in for the fitness for Gaelic football. And then she stuck at it for probably a year or that. And I was like, 'You're daft, what are you at? No, this isn't for girls'. Mom and them were all agreeing. And she kept going. And then she kept egging me on. And then eventually I went in and just fell in love with it. And she was right all along,” she said.
Speaking about the high intensity of the sport, and more specifically what it feels like to get hit, Aoife said: “I do remember when I first ever was in the ring that, like, anytime a punch was coming at me around and I would just laugh. I don't know is that just the way I was dealing with the nerves or what? I just remember finding it all hilarious being like, why am I in a ring? Like, literally a square, trying to bate someone and somebody else is coming at me. It just doesn't make sense. And to this day, it actually doesn't make sense to me. But yeah, I just keep going back for more.”
From a farming background, the sisters said they have plenty of sheep and cattle back home in Roscommon, inviting Tiernan to visit and give them some help with lambing season.
Touching on how there was always a competitive side to them both, Lisa said: “We've always gotten a challenge side out of us, whether it was a matter of scraping the shed — who could scrape the shed the fastest… She'd be on the left, I'd be on the right, or doing it faster than daddy.”
Aoife added that the physical strength of growing up on a farm had likely contributed to their success in sport.
They spoke of the “special moment” they shared at last year’s world championships in Serbia, where both of them took home silver for Ireland, before Aoife went on to win gold at the world championships in Liverpool last September.
“Lisa also won the world championships in 2022, so yeah, I was probably chasing what she had already won,” she said, acknowledging her sister’s previous achievement.
They spoke about the reality of travelling for the sport, revealing that while some people may think they’re living their best lives, it’s a different story in some of the places they’ve travelled to, from a leaking hotel roof to having to walk across a railway track to reach the world championship final venue.
“You couldn’t write it, but these are all memories. We wouldn’t have been a plane only for boxing because seven of us at home — we weren’t going too far. There was no family holidays and when you have a farm as well, it’s not too often you’d get us all abroad,” Aoife said.
Aoife spoke about competing in the Olympics twice, boxing against China in Tokyo and against Poland in Paris, and her hopes to make it to LA in 2028.
Encouraging other young girls to get involved in the sport, she said: “The opportunities that we've got out of it, like getting to see the world and travel the world and represent your country. Representing Ireland is, you know, so many people dream of that and just never take that for granted… we are so proud to be representing our clubs, our county and Ireland on the world stage, it's incredible, and just so grateful for it.”
Tiernan’s final guest of the night was poet, comedian and actor Tim Key who spoke about his skin cancer diagnosis, his stand-up career, and his film
Key was somewhat taken aback when he was asked by Tiernan if he was ill recently, later revealing the reason for his reaction.
He spoke about how he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer, after a GP who attended one of his gigs some years ago noticed a suspicious mark on his skin.
The GP sent an email to his agent the following day, saying that Key should see his GP right away.
His GP sent him straight to the hospital, and at the hospital, the consultant referred him for an operation that same day.
“I thought that was a decent opener,” Key said, finding humour in the story, with Tiernan referring to it as the greatest opening anyone on the show has had.
Touching on collaborating with Steve Coogan, whom he described as a major hero of his, on he spoke of the pressure of performing alongside the actor and the feeling of working so closely with someone he admired within the industry.
Speaking about his film - - that he had written with Tom Bradsen, he said that while there was a lot of self-doubt involved, he had always felt that if he wrote a script, in this case with Bradsen, that he loved and believed in it, then there'd be no reason why it shouldn't be made into a film.
When asked by Tiernan about his initial hesitation to the question about his previous illness, Key explained: “What happened was, you asked me that, and so…. I did all of that stuff, and then got the all clear from that situation. Then there were four years of MRI scans and CT scans every three months, just to check I was okay. Then I got the all clear, hugged it out with my doctor, and then a year later, [December 2024], I found another lump in my hip, and I had all the tests and all of that stuff, and then got diagnosed again with cancer. Yeah, so, and I haven't told anyone, like, I've never talked about it in public, yeah. And so it did feel like a big place to start.”
“So I had an operation last February, and they removed that tumour and then I started a course of immunotherapy in March of last year, so every three weeks I do this immunotherapy,” he continued.
“So I don't have cancer now, but I'm doing the treatment for that, and I've been very fortunate."
Key said that all of this was happening at the time of the Sundance Film Festival and the film's opening.
“I just remember being on stage with Griff [James Griffith], who directed it, and Carey Mulligan, who's in it, and Tom Basten. I mean, there's a sort of numbness about it, because it just sort of feels impossible that these two things are happening at the same time," he said.
Tiernan noted that there could be a movie in his experience, with Key saying he had thought about it as an idea for a book.
“It was so interesting, like experiencing both those things. They were on consecutive weekends, Sundance and then the operation,” he said.
Dermot Kennedy closed out the show with a performance of his new song alongside the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Kennedy will be going on tour this summer, with dates at the Aviva in Dublin on July 11 and 12.
