Shay Healy
If you’ve seen Eddie Delahunt perform around Mexican times of celebration (like beating Ireland in the 1994 World Cup), you’ll have heard a certain song about tacos and nachos, alive-alive-o. Well today on Balcony TV Shay Healy has a variation on that theme.
Shay Healy has a resume longer than things that are really long. Irish KC readers may know him as the writer of the Eurovision winning song What’s Another Year? as performed by Johnny Logan.
Back in the early days of Black 47, I remember watching an excellent documentary Shay made - among many (like those on Phil Lynott, Tammy Wynette, Father Ted, Roy Rogers) - called Green Cop Rockers. This was a look at the life of Chris Byrne, then a NYPD officer by day and a member of Kansas City’s favourite New York band, Black 47, by night.
Shay has written songs recorded by all manner of Irish traditional, country, and pop singers. He’s a legend in Irish broadcasting, from Famous Shamus to The Dublin Village, to children’s television, to Youth TV, to the stuff the grown-ups can like. To this day his Nighthawks is one of Irish television’s greatest achievements - and I still miss it.
But now, lo and behold, joining the ranks of other national figures Paul Brady, Eleanor McEvoy, and Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan, Shay performs on Dublin’s most famous Balcony. But is the version better than Delahunt’s?
See Other Irish Videos:
• Irish Music Through the Ages by Langerland
• Guy’s Dog : Irish Claymation by Rory Bresnihan
• Christy Moore & Shane MacGowan on the Late Late
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I’m speaking on behalf of the hombre ‘Yo Soy Gabriel’ , he says and I quote “We Wuz Robbed!” end quote XoXoX Edweirdo.
No question. Eddie’s version is miles above.
However… I sure would love to see Eddie
and Brett and Gabe all howling at the moon
sometime. That was a nice touch!
Kevin Kiley