My Country Life

Irish country music legend Sandy Kelly (nee Duskey) has a remarkable story to tell. Born in Sligo into a family of travelling entertainers, she appeared in variety roadshows all over Ireland from the time she was a baby. Sandy joined a pop band in her teens and later went on to represent Ireland in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest with The Duskeys. It was her recording of the Patsy Cline hit, Craz...

SUSAN McCann is Ireland’s First Lady of Country, and in part two of her life story here on the Sunday World podcast My Country Life, the legendary singer recalls performing on the same Florida festival with Garth Brooks, while he was then on his journey to becoming a country music superstar. Susan talks about her meeting with Garth at that event in 1991, and tells how he was trying to achieve the...

SHE’S Ireland’s First Lady of Country and Susan McCann has had a remarkable life in music, performing everywhere from the marquee in her native Forkhill, South Armagh, to Nashville’s famous Grand Ole Opry. As Susan tells it, she came from humble beginnings growing up among a family of 11 in a two-bed house with no electricity or running water. Starting off as the singer in her local céili band, at...

SHE'S Ireland’s Queen of Country and at the age of 80 Philomena Begley says she has no intention of relinquishing her title anytime soon. As we speak, Philomena is celebrating an incredible 60 years in showbusiness and here on 'My Country Life' she says that singing and performing is the drug that keeps her young at heart. Philomena talks about her early life growing up in the Co Tyrone village of...

HERE in part two of The Joe Dolan Story, his brother Ben takes us inside their life on the road and the early days of ‘Driftermania’. He tells how Joe became an international star after performing on BBC’s iconic Top Of The Pops with his first major hit, Make Me An Island. This would lead to tours of South Africa, Israel, Russia and all over Europe. Ben takes us to Las Vegas where Joe tried his lu...

Joe Dolan was one of Ireland’s greatest ever entertainers. He was our Elvis Presley. Our first pop star. Joe performed on BBC’s Top Of The Pops, toured the world as an international star, played in Las Vegas and had a string of hits that included The Answer To Everything, Make Me An Island, Lady In Blue and Good Looking Woman. One man who stood alongside him for almost 50 years as a performer was...

Here in part two of our My Country Life podcast with Margo, Ireland’s Queen of Country & Irish recalls her many struggles in life, including a personal battle with alcoholism back in the day. Margo opens up about her regret at never becoming a mother and reveals that she still carries a torch for her first love who remains a friend and gave her a personal gift on her 70th birthday – with the bless...

She’s the Queen of Country & Irish music, and Margo O’Donnell has had a remarkable life. Long before the world heard of her little brother Daniel O’Donnell, Margo was topping the charts and performing to thousands of fans in dance halls all over Ireland. Margo also won the hearts of Irish emigrants in Britain and Ireland in the ‘60s and ‘70s with her poignant songs from their homeland. Here in par...

TODAY, he manages the career of Irish country music superstar Daniel O’Donnell, but former New Blues showband guitarist Kieran Cavanagh has had a remarkable life in his own right. While in his 20s, Kieran set out to bring some of the biggest stars in American country music to Ireland, starting with the greatest of them all – Johnny Cash. Here, on My Country Life, the Co Sligo-born impresario share...

Declan Nerney has lived a charmed life, from playing in bands with some of Ireland’s biggest country music stars, including Gene Stuart and Brian Coll, to meeting his idol Johnny Cash. Here, in My Country Life, Declan recalls how he dreamed of a life in showbusiness watching the big stars playing local marquee dances in his native Drumlish, Co Longford. He tells how he became a guitar player in a...

FATHER Brian D’Arcy is chaplain to the world of Irish showbusiness and has been a friend and confidante to our entertainers since the 1960s. A columnist with the Sunday World for 46 years, Fr Brian has led a remarkable life and here we focus on his interactions with Irish and international music stars from the showbands to the world of country music. Here, in part two of Fr Brian’s story, he recal...

FATHER Brian D’Arcy is chaplain to the world of Irish showbusiness and has been a friend and confidante to our entertainers since the 1960s. A columnist with the Sunday World for 46 years, Fr Brian has led a remarkable life and has been at the centre of many major events in Ireland throughout the decades. On our My Country Life podcast with Eddie Rowley, we focus on his life through music, and Fr...

Irish country music star Michael English first came to national prominence as a child performing on the Late Late Toy Show. This would lead to The Boy Wonder being inundated with offers of work and landing his first gig supporting showband legend Dickie Rock while still in school. A chance meeting with Henry McMahon of Big Tom’s band The Mainliners would later set him on the road to success as a c...

Country music star Mike Denver started out in life as a plumber and worked on the buildings with his father before his career in entertainment took off. In My Country Life, Mike from Portumna, Co. Galway, takes us on his incredible journey that began the day he received a phone call that changed his life. Starting out singing in pubs, Mike would go on to record in Nashville with one of his major i...

Liverpool-born of Irish descent, Nathan Carter has become a country music superstar in Ireland – having shot to fame with a song called Wagon Wheel. He’s the biggest music sensation on the country scene since Daniel O’Donnell first made an impact in the 1980s. Here, in My Country Life, Nathan takes us on a journey through his life growing up in Liverpool and his childhood holidays based around the...

Jimmy Buckley is one of Ireland’s biggest country music stars, both in his own right and as a member of supergroup The Three Amigos. Here, in My Country Life, Jimmy tells how his success is the realisation of a childhood dream when he used to sing into the head of a sweeping brush on stage in a former ballroom at the rear of his family home, imagining an adoring audience in front of him. He recall...

American-born Robert Mizzell from Shreveport, Louisiana, is now one of Ireland’s biggest country music stars in his own right and as a member of The Three Amigos with Patrick Feeney and Jimmy Buckley. Here in part two of his life story, Robert tells Eddie Rowley how he achieved success on the Irish country scene after working in a string of jobs, from selling “mops and buckets” to insurance and pe...

Robert Mizzell has climbed the ranks of the Irish country music scene to become one of our biggest stars as a solo artist and member of supergroup The Three Amigos. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, he spent most of his childhood in foster care as a result of abuse and neglect in the family home. The abuse might have led to a dark, troubled, dead-end adult life for Robert had social services not put...

Patrick Feeney is one of Ireland’s top country singers, both as a solo artist and as a member of supergroup The Three Amigos with Robert Mizzell and Jimmy Buckley. As he started out in the adult world, Patrick turned down a Garda career to pursue his passion for singing, eventually turning professional after a brief stint as a sales rep. Here in My Country Life, Patrick takes us back to his childh...

Derek Ryan started out in life as a pop star in the early Noughties with teen idols D-Side. With hits including Real World, he performed on the BBC’s iconic Top Of The Pops TV chart show and played major venues such as London’s Wembley Arena and Dublin’s Point Theatre, now the 3Arena. However, when D-Side eventually fizzled out, Derek found himself struggling to make ends meet playing the pubs in...

As she gets set to launch a tribute concert tour to her idol, Cliona talks about the impact the American country legend has had on her career. Cliona also tells us about the other influential and supportive women who have helped to shape her life - her mum Claire and late grandmother ‘Granny McCuskey.’ She recalls her very first TV appearance as a 12-year-old schoolgirl singing on The Late Late To...

Irish country music superstar Daniel O’Donnell has lived a charmed life, achieving fame and wealth beyond anything he ever imagined in a glittering career spanning 40 years. However, as he revealed in part one of his interview with My Country Life, success didn’t come easy. The boy from Donegal had a tough struggle along his journey – once playing with his band to an audience of just six people! H...

Irish country music superstar Daniel O’Donnell has lived a charmed life, achieving fame and wealth beyond anything he ever imagined in a glittering career spanning 40 years. He has performed at iconic venues around the globe, from The Point (3Arena) in Dublin to London’s Royal Albert Hall, Sydney’s Opera House and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Daniel has had more albums in the British charts than any...

My Country Life, with Eddie Rowley, is a podcast series that takes you backstage and into the real lives of Irish country music's kings and queens. Each episode in this series features a well-known star opening the doors to their past and taking us on their personal journey into the spotlight. Along the way, they reveal their highs and lows, happiness and heartaches and their struggle to find succ...