Joe, ho, ho!

Joe Duffy was already a staple of the Christmas schedules with his Christmas Eve radio show and now he’s taking to the panto stage, too. Michael Doherty caught up with him for a festive chat

Anumber of personalities are synonymous with Christmas. In the past, there was Jimmy O’dea, Maureen Potter and Danny Cummins and more recently, we naturally think of Twink, Alan Hughes (aka Sammy Sausages) or June Rodgers. Joe Du y also deserves his place on that festive roll of honour.

His annual Christmas Eve broadcasts began when he was a reporter for Gay Byrne’s radio show and he has braved the chilly winds of Dublin in December for the past 15 years to present his own radio show live on Christmas Eve morning. is year, Joe is also poised to make his panto debut (oh yes, he is) as the Magic Mirror in Snow White. No wonder he’s in a cheery mood when I catch up with him to talk all things festive.

Growing up with ve boys in one room, what were your earliest Christmas memories?

It was all soldiers and cowboy out ts. e ve boys were in the one bedroom so there was great excitement. My mother still lives in the house and when I bring my own sons up to the room, they crease laughing at the size of it! It was brilliant leading up to Christmas because we’d be under the sheets chatting about what we hoped would arrive on Christmas morning.

I’ve written an essay about Christmas in Ballyfermot that will go out on Sunday Miscellany on Christmas morning. It’s about my mother running around the place; the smell of Mansion oor polish all over the house and the smell of Lifebuoy soap o us as we were all lined up on the couch a er our baths.

What about your dad at this time?

At around four o’clock, myself and my brother would be despatched with my baby brother’s pram – he wasn’t in it – to the local pub to get my father. He was a very hard worker and would have worked a half-day on Christmas Eve. We’d bring him over to the o licence and he would buy the drinks for Christmas and put them in the pram.

Myself and my brother would he it all the way up

Ballyfermot Road and he would go back into the pub!

He would come in at around

9pm and he’d be in great form. He’s stand in front of our stereogram and sing e Little Boy at Santa Claus Forgot, with tears streaming down his cheeks.

I know you were a panto family, so is Maureen Potter your Spirit of Christmas Past?

We always went to the Gaiety panto because my aunt Renee, who is still alive, worked as a telephonist there. We got tickets from when I was that high. When I’m in the Gaiety now, I look up and there’s a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. I remember back to Maureen Potter doing Jack in the Beanstalk one year. Whoever played Jack climbed up from the oor and went into a hole in the roof. It must be about a hundred feet! Health and safety wouldn’t let you do that now!

And now you’re part of the Tivoli panto…

I’ve been going to Alan and Karl’s panto in the Tivoli since the very beginning. My kids are 23 and we reckon that we’ve been going since they were three. Even in the big snow of 2010, we abandoned the car and made it to the show. I’m lmed in the show in the role of the Magic Mirror; so the likes of Bu y and Alan and Mary Byrne will ri o that character. I’ll be hiding when I see myself in the show, especially wearing that turban! ey’re actually pulling the Tivoli down the day a er we nish, so I’m literally bringing the house down.

ey say that the coldest inhabited place on Earth is Oymyakon in Russia, but did they reckon without Dublin’s Gra on Street on Christmas Eve?

at might be true! In 2010, it was minus 18 degrees! RTÉ was going to pull the broadcast but the Corporation said they would go in and clear out all of the snow. e following year, it was plus 14 degrees. at’s a 32 degree di erence in one year. Talk about climate change! We don’t mind the cold so much; it’s the rain that’s the problem, with all of the electrics. But it’s always great fun and always the same format. Brendan O’carroll comes in and we get many of the same people coming along to watch, some of whom have been there since Gay’s time; including the man who always sings From a Jack to a King. Every year I give him a voucher and say, ‘Spend that on singing lessons’!

A few nal quick- re questions. Christmas isn’t Christmas without which festive movie?

I know it’s not a Christmas movie, but for me it’s Some Like it Hot (1959). I love it. It’s my favourite movie of all time.

An unmissable TV show you recall watching over Christmas?

Billy Smart’s Christmas Circus. 3pm every Christmas Day.

Did you have a favourite present as a child?

Oh yes, my State Trooper out t! It was a plastic helmet and a zip-up jacket with a badge. ere was a pair of leggings, a belt, a truncheon and a pair of handcu s. If I dressed up in it now, Trump would send me to the Mexican border!

What would be your ideal present as an adult (hint, hint)?

Anything to do with U2. It’s 40 years since I saw them for the rst time. I’m mesmerised by their longevity and the fact that they’re still relevant today. Gay got a Harley-davidson, but I’d be happy with any memorabilia to do with the band!

Finally, Joe; never mind Brussels and Brexit, where do you stand on Brussels sprouts? Yay or nay?

I’d eat Brussels sprouts all day, every day. I honestly eat Brussels sprouts at least once a week; tossed with Dalkey mustard and natural yoghurt. If a doctor told me I have to change my diet and eat them every day for the rest of my life, I’d say, ‘Happy days’. I love prepping them, chopping them, roasting them, adding almonds to them. Whoever does the PR for Brussels sprouts should be sacked and they should let me take over: I’m the Brussels sprouts champion!

Snow White and the Adventures of Sammy Sausages & Bu y runs at the Tivoli eatre, Dublin, until January 13