Brendan waxes lyrical about Kerry

Ahead of his upcoming show in the INEC on Saturday, January 20, Fergus Dennehy talks to the legendary Brendan Grace. In the interview below, Brendan talks about why he loves to play the INEC, his dear friends John B Keane and Nedeen Kelliher, over 45 year

“REMEMBER, Fergus, the Holy Ghost was from Kerry - that’s what the great John B Keane always told me and I’d believe him,” he laughed.

These are Brendan Grace’s final words to me on Friday afternoon as we chat ahead of his upcoming show in the INEC, Killarney on Saturday, January 20 - a venue which he definitively calls “a great spot and one of the best venues in the entire country.”

Talk of his imminent return to Kerry conjures up wonderful memories for Brendan, as he reminisces on some of the great times and the great characters that he has known here.

The first of course is the late, great John B Keane and Brendan says that one of his favourite memories with the famous Listowel playwright involved a group of American tourists who he had brought down to Kerry.

“John B was just an icon that I loved and I was lucky enough in my life to be able to call him a good friend. He was, of course, tre- mendously talented in his writing and I never missed a visit down to Listowel when I was down here,” said Brendan, talking The Kerryman on Friday.

“I used to bring down some American tourists down on tours down here. I want to show them Ireland through my eyes; I remember one trip where myself and the tour group from America, we stopped off in John B’s pub.”

“Now, they of couse saw John B as this great playwright and huge untouchable name in the industry. Imagine their shock then when John B just walks into the pub, as casual as you can be and just said ‘Howya Brendan?!’. I swear their jaws hit the floor so fast - they just couldn’t believe he was right there in front of us,” he laughed.

Another local and iconic charactor who Brendan enjoyed a long and fruitful friendship with was Annagh/Blennerville character, Nedeen Kelliher - a man he describes as one “one of the wittiest and funniest characters he’s ever known.

“I always tell the story, probably the most famous story about Nedeen I would say; he was bringing four American tourists out around the country in a horse and cart and as they were going along the road, the horse let out this loud and unmerciful fart and it could be heard for a mile,” he said.

“The Americans were astonished and Nedeen casually turned around to them and says ‘sorry about that now mam, he’s just changing gear’ and of course, the Americans loved that,” he chuckled.

As a sign of the esteem in which he held Nedeen, Brendan returned to Kerry last year to unveil a plaque to his late friend, a tribute he described as a fiting memory to his friend.

Brendan is now celebrating over 45 years in show business and he exhales loudly when I ask him if it ever feels like it’s been that long - of course he says no, but he says that he still remembers his first ever show - a show that he says changed his whole life

and set him on his current path.

“My first ever solo show was in Scariff in Clare. I had terribly bad nerves that night, nerves like you wouldn’t believe. I was a singer that night, I hadn’t even thought about performing as a comedian.

Wouldn’t you believe it though, that halfway through the show, I broke a string on my guitar and I had to tell a few jokes to get by,” he chuckled, “that’s where it all started for me. It set me off on everything that I did,” he continued.

Talking of his upcoming show on January 20, Brendan reckons that he has performed in the famous theatre on over 20 different occasions and he says what he loves most about the venue, especially when he performs there in January, is variety of audience members from all over the country.

“We’ve figured it out over the years, why my January dates are so popular. It’s because everyone and anyone buys the tickets for their mam and dad as a Christmas gift and then the siblings get brought along as well and everyone makes a big night out of it,”

“It’s always great, great fun down there, we’re very much looking forward to it. If you can, an honourable mention has to go to Fiona in the Gleneagle Hotel - she always looks after all of us when we go down there,” she continued.

Before letting me go, Brendan has one final fond memory of his time in Kerry that he wishes to share with me - this time, a memory about a famous healing well located somewhere in North Kerry.

“There is a well somwhere in Kerry, I think it could be up near Lixnaw and this well, it’s said to have special powers, it is said to be able to heal you of your illness,” he said.

“As is known, I’ve had a couple of ailments over the years and so on one trip to Kerry, I went along to this well to see if it could do anything for me and in all honesty, I felt so much better after going to it. I felt amazing after that visit, I couldn’t believe it,” he continued.

Brendan will perform in the INEC on Saturday January 20 with tickets to this show set to cost just €33.20; doors open on the night at 7pm with the show itself set to start at 8pm.

He will be joined on the night by special guests ‘Showband Nostalgia’ so make sure you grab your tickets and don’t miss out on this great night of family fun entertainment in “one of the best venues in the entire country.”

John B was just an icon that I loved and I was lucky enough in my life to be able to call him a good friend. He was of course tremendously talented in his writing.