Simon’s star turn

Music with Eddie Rowley

BACK in 2003, Irish TV viewers were captivated by the You’re a Star contest to find a representative for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The series ended in a singoff between Mickey Joe Harte and Simon Casey ( above right), with the riveting final attracting almost a million viewers to RTÉ One.

In the end, it was Mickey Joe from Lifford who went on to the Eurovision with a song called ‘We’ve Got the World’.

However, Simon from Ballycumber, Co Offaly, used his profile wisely to carve a successful career with his wedding and corporate entertainment band.

Now comes a new twist in his career as he teams up with legendary Irish actor Patrick Bergin ( above) on his latest single, ‘Tipperary Waltz’.

Colourful Bergin, whose acting roles range from Sleeping With The Enemy, where he starred alongside Julia Roberts, to EastEnders and the new Michael Flatley movie, Blackbird, is also a talented songwriter and singer.

‘Tipperary Waltz’ is a song Bergin was inspired to write as he remembered a conversation he’d had with his father, Paddy, about World War 1.

Paddy had heard his son singing ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary,’ and told him it was a recruiting song for the British army. He asked Patrick to write a song of his own.

A line in ‘Tipperary Waltz’ — “the ghosts of the men he shot still haunted him” — is a reference to Tipperary freedom fighter Dan Breen who had personally told Patrick’s father about his experiences.

Simon Casey says: “In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Great War ended. Over the span of four years, the First World War had claimed the lives of 20 million soldiers and civilians. ‘Tipperary Waltz’ is dedicated to all those fallen heroes.”