For my fifth birthday – which was not today or yesterday – I received a video tape labelled Richie Rides Again. On the front of the video box was a cartoon image of a man wearing dungarees and riding a yellow scooter. And on the back was a list of songs that have stuck with me to this very day.
Little did my uncle John know when he bought that tape, that he would instil in his niece a grá for Carlow singer Richie Kavanagh.
Like many other Richie Kavanagh fans across the country, the annual voyage to the National Ploughing Championships is an opportunity to witness the award-winning IRMA (Irish Record Music Association) singer-songwriter in his full glory. Dungarees, cap, gloves and all. 
The Richie Kavangh Tent is where many Ploughing punters finish up their day; singing along to
Aon Focal Eile, followed by a purchase of the latest CD, which would be played on the way home in the car.
Speaking to Irish Country Living from his home in Garyhill, nestled between the backdrop of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs Mountains, the Carlow entertainer laughs when he thinks of some of the characters he meets at the Ploughing Championships.
“You would get the odd fella that would buy a DVD, walk back to the car to put it in to play, then bring it back to the stand to say it won’t play. It used to happen a lot years ago,” he recalls.
Ploughing 2019 was a special year for Richie, as the event took place a few miles away from his home, which is “no length from Fenagh at all”.
“When I was performing at the Ploughing last year, I was able to point up to Mount Leinster and show people where it was. We had a packed tent all day, every day. I’m delighted when I see people singing and enjoying themselves.
“People don’t realise if you want to get into the Ploughing match with your van, you have to be there at 7am. So you’re in at 7am and you wouldn’t be starting to sing until 10.30am.
“We were in Cork one time and arrived at 6.30am, we didn’t think there were many people around so we started to do a sound check. The next thing a lad down in a caravan woke up and heard me singing, he thought it was 11am.”
Having gotten his big break in 1996 with top single Aon Focal Eile, Richie takes great pride in having kept the likes of Take That and The Spice Girls off the top of the charts, staying at number one for seven weeks.
With over 170 songs, 18 albums and 10 DVDs recorded to date, the singer songwriter has witnessed the transition from cassettes and video tapes to YouTube and Facebook. On the latter platform his song Chicken Talk has reached over 20m views.
“When I bring out an album, I bring out a song that is sort of naughty, then a historical one, then a funny song, then one about a tractor. I like to find things that people are not aware of and turn them into a song, that’s what makes the music special,” says Richie.
“I used to bring out an album every year, which would mean I’d have to write 15 songs, I would sing the chorus into a dictaphone, then the next day write it into a book. I could come back to it and I would have a song in a day or I might not come back to it for a few weeks.
“I would say to my wife Nancy, ‘I’m going up to Mount Leinster now for a walk with the dictaphone’. Something would come into your head. I would always have a new song or album ready to be launched at the Ploughing.”
He has even gone as far as writing a song about the event itself, The Ploughing Match Song.
Richie explains that all his songs are written about somebody. “When you have lived in an area for so long, you have great memories of characters in your head. A lot of the characters are gone now. I always write songs about people who deserve to have songs written about them.”
One such person is fellow Garyhill man Johnny Tracey, who has represented Ireland and Carlow at the National and World Ploughing Championships on numerous occasions.
“Johnny Tracey is a very easy going man. He is someone who is thought a lot of in Garyhill. He and his son Eamonn have brought great pride and numerous All-Ireland and world titles to Garyhill. So I thought he deserved a song.”
Fortunately for Richie Kavanagh fans, the Stay Wut Her Johnny singer, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011, intends to keep writing and recording new songs.
Irish Country Living asks, what is it like being Richie Kavanagh? “It’s great craic, I wouldn’t change it for the world,” is his reply.
For my fifth birthday – which was not today or yesterday – I received a video tape labelled Richie Rides Again. On the front of the video box was a cartoon image of a man wearing dungarees and riding a yellow scooter. And on the back was a list of songs that have stuck with me to this very day.
Little did my uncle John know when he bought that tape, that he would instil in his niece a grá for Carlow singer Richie Kavanagh.
Like many other Richie Kavanagh fans across the country, the annual voyage to the National Ploughing Championships is an opportunity to witness the award-winning IRMA (Irish Record Music Association) singer-songwriter in his full glory. Dungarees, cap, gloves and all.
The Richie Kavangh Tent is where many Ploughing punters finish up their day; singing along to
Aon Focal Eile, followed by a purchase of the latest CD, which would be played on the way home in the car.
Speaking to Irish Country Living from his home in Garyhill, nestled between the backdrop of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs Mountains, the Carlow entertainer laughs when he thinks of some of the characters he meets at the Ploughing Championships.
“You would get the odd fella that would buy a DVD, walk back to the car to put it in to play, then bring it back to the stand to say it won’t play. It used to happen a lot years ago,” he recalls.
Ploughing 2019 was a special year for Richie, as the event took place a few miles away from his home, which is “no length from Fenagh at all”.
“When I was performing at the Ploughing last year, I was able to point up to Mount Leinster and show people where it was. We had a packed tent all day, every day. I’m delighted when I see people singing and enjoying themselves.
“People don’t realise if you want to get into the Ploughing match with your van, you have to be there at 7am. So you’re in at 7am and you wouldn’t be starting to sing until 10.30am.
“We were in Cork one time and arrived at 6.30am, we didn’t think there were many people around so we started to do a sound check. The next thing a lad down in a caravan woke up and heard me singing, he thought it was 11am.”
Having gotten his big break in 1996 with top single Aon Focal Eile, Richie takes great pride in having kept the likes of Take That and The Spice Girls off the top of the charts, staying at number one for seven weeks.
With over 170 songs, 18 albums and 10 DVDs recorded to date, the singer songwriter has witnessed the transition from cassettes and video tapes to YouTube and Facebook. On the latter platform his song Chicken Talk has reached over 20m views.
“When I bring out an album, I bring out a song that is sort of naughty, then a historical one, then a funny song, then one about a tractor. I like to find things that people are not aware of and turn them into a song, that’s what makes the music special,” says Richie.
“I used to bring out an album every year, which would mean I’d have to write 15 songs, I would sing the chorus into a dictaphone, then the next day write it into a book. I could come back to it and I would have a song in a day or I might not come back to it for a few weeks.
“I would say to my wife Nancy, ‘I’m going up to Mount Leinster now for a walk with the dictaphone’. Something would come into your head. I would always have a new song or album ready to be launched at the Ploughing.”
He has even gone as far as writing a song about the event itself, The Ploughing Match Song.
Richie explains that all his songs are written about somebody. “When you have lived in an area for so long, you have great memories of characters in your head. A lot of the characters are gone now. I always write songs about people who deserve to have songs written about them.”
One such person is fellow Garyhill man Johnny Tracey, who has represented Ireland and Carlow at the National and World Ploughing Championships on numerous occasions.
“Johnny Tracey is a very easy going man. He is someone who is thought a lot of in Garyhill. He and his son Eamonn have brought great pride and numerous All-Ireland and world titles to Garyhill. So I thought he deserved a song.”
Fortunately for Richie Kavanagh fans, the Stay Wut Her Johnny singer, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011, intends to keep writing and recording new songs.
Irish Country Living asks, what is it like being Richie Kavanagh? “It’s great craic, I wouldn’t change it for the world,” is his reply.
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