My top 17 movers, shakers (and structures!) for 2017
THIS time last year I had the audacity to pick my 16 for ’16 – the Irish people who I thought would reach new heights in the historic year just passed. Ruth Negga, Nathan Carter, Saoirse Ronan and filmmaker John Crowley have all lived up to my high hopes. I tipped Michael Conlon to box his way to Olympic greatness – he did but was robbed of his medal by events outside the ring. Likewise, I thought marathon walker Rob Heffernan would get a medal in Rio – he did get a medal but it was belatedly for the London Games where he was cheated out of a place. So here are my 17 for ’17.
1,2
Dancing With The Stars, which kicks off next weekend, will be a sure-fire hit. Last week I met Des Cahill’s dancing partner, a neighbour’s child from Ballyfermot, and she assured me the selfdeprecating sports presenter will be a winner – and it couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke. Nicky Byrne will also rise to new heights as co-presenter on the show.
3
Amy Huberman, who recently did a comedic masterclass in a three-minute appearance in the TG4 series Fir Bolg, will be back on our TV screens this week – but surely movie stardom is within her grasp this year.
4
Speaking of Fir Bolg – where an Irish traditional rock band reunite after 30 years with dramatic and hilarious results – the dark horse, according to reviewers, was Aonghus McAnally, who more than held his own against heavyweight actors such as Don Wycherley and Seán McGinley. This year Aonghus continues his tour, performing the songs of the late Christie Hennessy.
5
Seána Kerslake, the actress from Killinarden in Dublin, is being pushed stateside after her bravura performances in A Date For Mad Mary and Can’t
6
Cope, Won’t Cope. The US is about to get the new Scarlett Johansson! It was only a matter of time before Copper Face Jacks and Solpadeine featured in our national discourse. It’s all thanks to young Cork writer and Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope creator
Stefanie Preissner. Watch her star rise in 2017.
7,8,9
Three comedians are going to hit the big time: Al Porter will make it big in Britain, Al Foran may not be as well known but he is a genius impersonator, while Oliver Callan is spreading his unclipped wings as an astute, witty and acerbic newspaper columnist.
10
Speaking of columnists, is there any hope that we can read or listen to the always thought-provoking John Waters in 2017? It was one of the great absences of 2016 that John’s voice was shamefully stilled.
11
Another Irish writer set to win the Booker prize is Wicklow-based Sebastian
Barry with his tour de force Days Without End.
12,13
Playwright Mark O’Rowe is currently directing Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy in a new movie being filmed around Dublin. Anything that our sharpest playwright and brightest actor do together can only be a hit.
14
If you haven’t already binge watched it on Netflix, have a look at the Canadian science fiction series Orphan Black and you will realise that Maria Doyle Kennedy is not just a great singer from her days in Hothouse Flowers and The Black Velvet Band. She is also a stunning actress who will hit new heights in 2017.
15
I don’t know much about radio but I definitely think that crime journalist Paul Williams is a distinctive, new and different voice on Newstalk Breakfast.
16
Lottie Ryan has just won her first broadcasting award for her work on 2FM. 2017 will be her year. And finally my list for this coming year is rounded off, not with a person… but with a new building.
17
The Central Bank is due to relocate to Dublin’s quays in the building originally planned for Anglo Irish Bank. If that wasn’t ironic enough in our post-truth society – the new Central Bank HQ is clad in gold. It will be the talk of the town and no doubt will be renamed Trump Tower by Dublin taxi drivers.