Tuam flying Ireland's flag in Kyiv

DON’T put away your St Patrick’s Day tricolours quite yet – Brendan Murray is our man in Kyiv this week and even the die-hard Eurovision haters could be doing a lot worse than giving the Tuam talent their support.
Tuam is known for its love of music and has, in fairness, plenty of successes in this area but Brendan is the first to take it to the level of singing for his country.
The former boyband member and St Jarlath’s student has been working the red carpet, mingling at pre-contest parties and basically shaking and smiling as much as he can during his ten days in Ukraine so far. And we have to agree with his thousands of social media followers that Brendan has a pretty great smile.

 

But singing and smiling aren’t the only things you need to get ahead in the Eurovision these days and despite having won the coveted title seven times, Ireland seems to have lost favour with the ’vision voters in this decade.
Brendan assures us he won’t be joined on stage by dancing 'gorillas’, will do his best not to yodel and won’t be whisked off the stage in the giant red and white balloon that is one of the standout features of the dramatic Irish performance stage set.
“It’s been hectic,” is how Brendan describes his first week in Kyiv and the past few days have been even busier.

Read more in this week's edition