Flatley aims to dance to the edge of the world

THE dance shoes may be hung up but the first thing to catch the eye just inside the door of Castlehyde on a rainy Friday lunchtime was Michael Flatley’s golf shoes.

The dancer, musician and ex-boxer has a handicap of 14 and he still uses his visits home to the north Cork mansion to get onto the driving range, where 4-year-old son Michael St James Flatley takes a keen interest.

With work keeping Michael in London most of the time, he is currently based there with wife Niamh, and it is where little Mikey will start school next month. But the proud father does not rule out a more permanent residency on the banks of the Blackwater just outside Fermoy: “I would love nothing more than if he could spend more time here and right now it’s all just a matter of keeping them close to me. We just never want to leave Castlehyde when we’re here.”

It is his deep love of his adopted Cork home and Ireland in general that prompted him to support the upcoming Edge of The World event on the Cliffs of Moher, part of a campaign to get the site chosen as one of the New7Wonders of Nature in an online poll.

One of Flatley’s top troupes will kick off their latest tour of Lord of the Dance with a new set, new costumes and lighting design, with musical guests including Finbarr Furey and another Co Clare institution — the Kilfenora Céilí Band.

Running for two nights only, on September 1 and 2, the 53-year-old promises it will be a wonderful family day out but also believes the bigger venture to get the Cliffs of Moher on the world map deserves the whole country’s support.

“These people in Clare are working 20 hours a day. I think it’s a remarkable achievement if they pull it off. It’s a really wonderful chance for Ireland to be seen in the light it should be seen right now,” he said.

So is there any chance that Mikey might follow in his fiery footsteps?

“Right now his whole focus is on kicking the football around and running and jumping and everything every other little kid does. Mainly he’s interested in punching so I’ve been helping him with his left hook,” he said.

“I’ll follow him whatever he wants to do but I won’t be pushing him into it. And his mother will have a lot to say about it as well, I’m sure.”

* For details on the Cliffs of Moher event, visitedgeoftheworld.ie. Tickets are sold at ticketmaster.ie and Ticketmaster outlets.

Flatley on Gay Byrne

I don’t know who else is running, but I can’t think of a better candidate than Gay Byrne, after all he’s done for the country. He’s a level-headed man, a highly intelligent man, a great personality and in ways he’s seen as a father figure in this country.

Sometimes great men don’t really get great until they’re well into their 70s, and sometimes their 80s. If you look at a lot of great names that have gone before us — Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie — a lot of those men really didn’t reach their full potential until they were much older. I think his wisdom is something Ireland needs right now, just in terms of direction.

Flatley on the economy

A lot of people that went down because of this didn’t really deserve it. There’s been a lot of bad guys, that’s for sure. But there were a lot of good men that employed hundreds of great people. And when those men go down, hundreds of people lose their jobs and I think we need to be sensitive to this. And I think NAMA needs to be sensitive in many ways.

There are great men that deserve to have a bit of room to manoeuvre, that made this country work, that hired people, that employed people. If they made a few quid on the way up, brilliant, why not? They’ve earned it, they’re out working and you have to admire people that are willing take a chance on getting ahead and that are willing to employ scores of people. We need to support those kind of men.

Flatley on promoting Ireland

I think it’s important, celebrating our culture, celebrating what we have. I have driven down the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles, through and Santa Barbara on one of the most famous coastlines in the world and it is not a patch on what we have here in Ireland. We need to celebrate that, we really do. I spend my summers in Villefranche-sur-Mer [on the French Riviera outside Nice], and it can’t touch what we have right here in Ireland.

So we do need to show the world what we have and tourism is such a big part of what we have here. The world needs to see it and deserves to see it.