After all the great weather, it’s hard to get used to the miserable wet conditions of the past week. On Friday night, I was a guest of the FBD Queen of the Land Festival in Tullamore and it couldn’t have been raining harder.

I really felt for Gerard Mahon and his hard-working committee, who had organised a parade, a band and a fleet of vintage cars to introduce the finalists to the crowds. However, teeming rain and cocktail frocks don’t go well together. Once indoors, everything worked wonderfully well on what was the 50th anniversary of the FBD Queen of the Land Festival.

The committee wanted to invite back as many past winners as possible, and it took months to trace some of them. It’s a credit to Gerard that 40 of the ladies were able to make the event. They included the very first Queen of the Land winner Phyllis Finnegan (nee Ward) from Co Meath. There was great comradeship between all the past winners, who may I say, to a woman looked absolutely amazing. This year’s winner was Orla Murphy, who is a nurse from Galway, and congratulations to her.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of anything is a wonderful achievement. It’s particularly special for an event that depends on a voluntary committee for its very existence. A committee that has to source sponsorship, take risks and do all the hard work that’s involved in a weekend event such as this.

The FBD Queen of the Land Festival is a huge boost to the economy of Tullamore at a quiet time of year. And from what I could see, it’s in safe hands and I wish it another 50 years of success.

On Monday night, the rain was sheeting down again and this time I was the one who was afraid it would deter people from attending a night that Irish Country Sound was involved in organising. But I needn’t have worried, and I was really delighted to welcome over 1,000 people to the inaugural Northern Ireland Entertainment Awards.

Along with Kieran McAnallen of the Armagh City Hotel and The Phil Mack Country Show, we’ve been working on this project for the past six months, so it was great to see such a crowd turn out to hear some of the best country acts on the scene.

We had 22 acts and while many of them are household names, others are more familiar to northern audiences. Sixteen-year-old Ben Troy is certainly one to watch and he brought the house down with his version of Wagon Wheel, which has been the making of Nathan Carter. We will certainly be back again next year.

Of course, our daughter’s wedding is in the background all the time. And suddenly what seemed ages away is now only a matter of weeks. I thrive under pressure, but Hazel isn’t built that way. She is ultra organised and likes everything done well in advance. So you can imagine how these different styles of working are shaping up.