It is just gone noon on Saturday and Mount Leinster is shrouded in mist. Here between Fenagh and Garyhill is where I find one of Ireland’s most unlikely showbiz stars, the one and only Richie Kavanagh.
The welcome is warm as Richie, his lovely wife Nancy and sons James and Richie Jnr welcome me to their home. It is a long way from Mayo to the south lands of Carlow, close to the Wexford border, but the hospitality makes it all worthwhile. I notice a few cats around the place and joke that I thought he was a Carlow man and not from Kilkenny.
“Richie loves his cats. He has six of them now. They follow him everywhere,” says his son James.
The Kavanagh family is as rural as you get. The accent is pure Carlow and it is so easy to feel completely at ease. There are no notions and no put-ons here.
“The boys up there in the hills call me ‘Rutchie’, that’s how they say my name. I love that. They like me the way I am.”
This week sees Richie release his new single with a video to accompany it.
“It is called Mattress Mick and it is all about a buck that looks a bit like meself. His right name is Michael Flynn from Dublin. He has a rake of mattress outlets around Dublin and I am his favourite singer. I wrote a song about him and I recorded it with Stephen Smyth above in Portaferry in Down. He’s a fierce nice chap too.
“We had Mattress Mick down last week and out on a farm with the tractor. He loves the country and we had a great time shooting the video.”
As Mattress Mick is about to become a new sensation around the country, Richie’s son James shows me a message he got from his neighbour, country singer Derek Ryan, some hours earlier saying Richie was trending on social media along with Ed Sheerin, Cold Play, and seven others in the Top 10.
“I hope this trending will see me sell a lot of cds and videos,” says Richie with a smile.
On the way from Carlow to Fenagh, I passed by the Carlow GAA centre of excellence grounds near the village. I could not help but ask Richie did he ever play football or hurling.
“I played one game with Naomh Eoin of Myshall. It was an under 16s game and we were playing Leighlinbridge. A pile of us loaded into vans and cars to get over there. I was in the forwards.
“I remember Tom Donoghue passed the ball to me as the goalie came out to meet him. I was clean through with an empty goal in front of me and I kicked it over the bar. We lost by a couple of goals anyway so they could not blame me. That was the only game I ever played.”
As Nancy brings me in some tea and sandwiches, the chat stays on sport.
“I had a photo taken with Jamie Heaslip of the Irish rugby team a few days ago. Jamie likes my songs and he sings them at the parties. I was up in Dublin at the international and we were delighted to meet him.”
We had Mattress Mick down last week and out on a farm with the tractor. He loves the country and we had a great time shooting the video
The talk swings from international rugby to the local GAA scene.
“Our girls from Myshall are in Croke Park tomorrow. We are very proud of them. They are playing a team from up north in the All-Ireland intermediate camogie final.
“Some of the family are heading to Croke Park to support them. The girls are great and it’s not often we get a chance to support a Carlow team in Croke Park. (Myshall defeated Eglish from Tyrone by a single point 1-10 to 1-9, to bring the title back to Carlow on Sunday evening).”
Richie spent 10 years working with Carlow County Council, mainly overseeing house repairs.
“I started as a young chap in 1970 on £10 a week. In 1980, I was earning £72 a week with them. It was mainly repairs to Council houses and hospitals and dispensaries.
“I always had a liking for plays, comedy and sketches, and started to scribble bits here and there. The first song I wrote was about Christy Walsh from Carlow town who used to present shows on the pirate radios around here.
“On my work with the council and going around the area, I noticed all the potholes, so I wrote a song about that. I looked up the Golden Pages for a studio and I spotted John Kelly’s at The Hazel in Monasterevin. I recorded the song there for £200. It took off and people loved it. My follow-up was Teenager In 1968 and that was a great song for me too. I then recorded my first album with John at the Hazel Hotel.” The rest is history.
In 2011, Richie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
“I can’t say it has been easy but you learn to work around it with the medicine. I met up with Tom Hickey who I still know as Benjy Riordan from The Riordans last year and we were in the same carriage for the Parkinson’s Parade in Dublin. He is such a lovely man.”
Richie Kavanagh’s defies almost every rule in the showbiz book. His appeal is international yet a million miles removed from the X Factor side of the business. The video for his song, Chicken Talk, has amassed almost 13 millions views between Facebook and YouTube.
“Tony Allen (of Foster and Allen) rang me around 4.30am one night to say he was in a cafe in South Africa and a group at the table next to them were roaring laughing at my Chicken Talk video. He was amazed at this,” says Richie.
Richie, who will be 68 on the 19 March, has cut back a lot on his shows and is now doing some carefully chosen dates for the year ahead. This of course includes the National Ploughing Championships, where he has been a regular for over two decades. In the meantime, Richie is looking forward to major success with Mattress Mick and lighting up many lives with rural humour that finds favour in city and country.
For more details on the Carlow man, check out richiekavanagh.ie
It is just gone noon on Saturday and Mount Leinster is shrouded in mist. Here between Fenagh and Garyhill is where I find one of Ireland’s most unlikely showbiz stars, the one and only Richie Kavanagh.
The welcome is warm as Richie, his lovely wife Nancy and sons James and Richie Jnr welcome me to their home. It is a long way from Mayo to the south lands of Carlow, close to the Wexford border, but the hospitality makes it all worthwhile. I notice a few cats around the place and joke that I thought he was a Carlow man and not from Kilkenny.
“Richie loves his cats. He has six of them now. They follow him everywhere,” says his son James.
The Kavanagh family is as rural as you get. The accent is pure Carlow and it is so easy to feel completely at ease. There are no notions and no put-ons here.
“The boys up there in the hills call me ‘Rutchie’, that’s how they say my name. I love that. They like me the way I am.”
This week sees Richie release his new single with a video to accompany it.
“It is called Mattress Mick and it is all about a buck that looks a bit like meself. His right name is Michael Flynn from Dublin. He has a rake of mattress outlets around Dublin and I am his favourite singer. I wrote a song about him and I recorded it with Stephen Smyth above in Portaferry in Down. He’s a fierce nice chap too.
“We had Mattress Mick down last week and out on a farm with the tractor. He loves the country and we had a great time shooting the video.”
As Mattress Mick is about to become a new sensation around the country, Richie’s son James shows me a message he got from his neighbour, country singer Derek Ryan, some hours earlier saying Richie was trending on social media along with Ed Sheerin, Cold Play, and seven others in the Top 10.
“I hope this trending will see me sell a lot of cds and videos,” says Richie with a smile.
On the way from Carlow to Fenagh, I passed by the Carlow GAA centre of excellence grounds near the village. I could not help but ask Richie did he ever play football or hurling.
“I played one game with Naomh Eoin of Myshall. It was an under 16s game and we were playing Leighlinbridge. A pile of us loaded into vans and cars to get over there. I was in the forwards.
“I remember Tom Donoghue passed the ball to me as the goalie came out to meet him. I was clean through with an empty goal in front of me and I kicked it over the bar. We lost by a couple of goals anyway so they could not blame me. That was the only game I ever played.”
As Nancy brings me in some tea and sandwiches, the chat stays on sport.
“I had a photo taken with Jamie Heaslip of the Irish rugby team a few days ago. Jamie likes my songs and he sings them at the parties. I was up in Dublin at the international and we were delighted to meet him.”
We had Mattress Mick down last week and out on a farm with the tractor. He loves the country and we had a great time shooting the video
The talk swings from international rugby to the local GAA scene.
“Our girls from Myshall are in Croke Park tomorrow. We are very proud of them. They are playing a team from up north in the All-Ireland intermediate camogie final.
“Some of the family are heading to Croke Park to support them. The girls are great and it’s not often we get a chance to support a Carlow team in Croke Park. (Myshall defeated Eglish from Tyrone by a single point 1-10 to 1-9, to bring the title back to Carlow on Sunday evening).”
Richie spent 10 years working with Carlow County Council, mainly overseeing house repairs.
“I started as a young chap in 1970 on £10 a week. In 1980, I was earning £72 a week with them. It was mainly repairs to Council houses and hospitals and dispensaries.
“I always had a liking for plays, comedy and sketches, and started to scribble bits here and there. The first song I wrote was about Christy Walsh from Carlow town who used to present shows on the pirate radios around here.
“On my work with the council and going around the area, I noticed all the potholes, so I wrote a song about that. I looked up the Golden Pages for a studio and I spotted John Kelly’s at The Hazel in Monasterevin. I recorded the song there for £200. It took off and people loved it. My follow-up was Teenager In 1968 and that was a great song for me too. I then recorded my first album with John at the Hazel Hotel.” The rest is history.
In 2011, Richie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
“I can’t say it has been easy but you learn to work around it with the medicine. I met up with Tom Hickey who I still know as Benjy Riordan from The Riordans last year and we were in the same carriage for the Parkinson’s Parade in Dublin. He is such a lovely man.”
Richie Kavanagh’s defies almost every rule in the showbiz book. His appeal is international yet a million miles removed from the X Factor side of the business. The video for his song, Chicken Talk, has amassed almost 13 millions views between Facebook and YouTube.
“Tony Allen (of Foster and Allen) rang me around 4.30am one night to say he was in a cafe in South Africa and a group at the table next to them were roaring laughing at my Chicken Talk video. He was amazed at this,” says Richie.
Richie, who will be 68 on the 19 March, has cut back a lot on his shows and is now doing some carefully chosen dates for the year ahead. This of course includes the National Ploughing Championships, where he has been a regular for over two decades. In the meantime, Richie is looking forward to major success with Mattress Mick and lighting up many lives with rural humour that finds favour in city and country.
For more details on the Carlow man, check out richiekavanagh.ie
SHARING OPTIONS