{"id":31558,"date":"2025-07-03T20:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31558"},"modified":"2025-07-03T20:25:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:25:29","slug":"outabout-325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31558","title":{"rendered":"Out&About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Paddy McCarthy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a night to remember last Friday evening where I attended the Irish Arts Center<\/strong> with my Arts & Entertainment editor Brad Balfour<\/strong> on my Out&About evening having been invited to celebrate Bill Whelan\u2019s 75th birthday<\/strong>, wishing Bill a Happy Birthday from The Irish Examiner USA<\/em> and all the staff and to thank you for your company after the show at The Irish Arts Center. It was so nice to meet Bill again after his introduction of Riverdance<\/strong>. Bill Whelan is a composer, musician, arranger, record producer and pianist, best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994\u00a0Eurovision Song Contest. The result, \u201cRiverdance,\u201d was a seven-minute piece of original music accompanying a new take on traditional\u00a0Irish stepdance\u00a0that became a\u00a0full-length stage production\u00a0and spawned a worldwide craze for\u00a0Irish traditional music\u00a0and dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a little bit about Bill as the first time I got to meet meet him was when he came over to New York City to meet publisher Niall O\u2019Dowd<\/strong> of The Irish Voice<\/strong> when I was the Advertising Director for Niall. To make a long story short, Niall asked me where the best place was to view the videotape of the seven-minute tape of Riverdance featuring Jean Butler<\/strong> and Michael Flatley<\/strong> during the intermission of the song contest that was performed at Dublin City, which also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1987 featuring Johnny Logan<\/strong> performing and representing Ireland. I was blown away after I seeing it so we viewed it a few times in Desmond\u2019s Tavern<\/strong> on Park Avenue South and I gave my comments that it is just fabulous to Bill and Niall. As again, with my music background, I gave my opinion, a very positive one to them. Now again that was my 15 minutes of fame and the rest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now back to the man himself. Bill, who is a native of\u00a0Limerick\u00a0city, and was educated at\u00a0Crescent College, gained his Bachelor of Civil Law degree at\u00a0University College Dublin\u00a0in 1973 and then went to\u00a0King\u2019s Inns.\u00a0In 2011, Whelan was awarded the UCD Foundation Day Medal in recognition of his outstanding achievements and his contribution to Irish music worldwide. While he is best known for his \u201cRiverdance\u201d composition and the theatrical show\u00a0of the same name, Bill has been involved in many ground-breaking projects in Ireland since the 1970s. In his autobiography, he especially mentions the major influence of\u00a0James W. Flannery<\/strong>. As a as a producer he has worked with\u00a0U2\u00a0(on their\u00a0War\u00a0album),\u00a0Van Morrison,\u00a0Kate Bush, The Dubliners, Planxty,\u00a0Andy Irvine\u00a0&\u00a0Davy Spillane,\u00a0Patrick Street,\u00a0Stockton\u2019s Wing and fellow Limerickman\u00a0Richard Harris. Now what more can I say, just that I had a very nice time Out&About meeting Bill Whelan and it was also nice to meet Pauline Turley<\/strong>, the vice Chair of the Irish Arts Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I\u2019d like to wish everyone a very Happy Independence Day <\/strong>holiday for Friday and the coming celebratory weekend. That\u2019s it for this weeks Out&About, I hope to see you all next week when I\u2019m Out&About again\u2026 <\/p>\n

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