Zach Bryan reveals his favourite Irish pub – and left jaw-dropping tip for staff
Staff gobsmacked as the American country superstar gives €6K tip to three staff members
The singer, who is performing to 180,000 fans at the Phoenix Park this weekend, with the final of three shows taking place this evening, spent Wednesday night drinking in The Celt on Dublin's Talbot Street after landing in Ireland that day.
'Shout out to the Celt last night, best damn bar in Ireland,' Bryan posted on his Instagram after the visit.
And yesterday publican Noel Tynan, the owner of The Celt, told how the Something In The Orange singer gave his three bar staff a total of €6,000 as a tip after hearing how one of them was working late night to pay his college fees.
'Zach was at the counter talking to staff and one of them said he was a student,' Noel reveals.
Country star Zach Bryan arm-wrestling pub owner Noel Tynan
'He was asking why he was working so late and he said he was doing it to get a few bob for college. 'Maybe I'll help you,' Zach said.
'So he left a tip of €6,000 for the three of them and said, 'That's his fees paid for now.' He also gave me tickets for a couple of terminally ill children from Crumlin Hospital to attend the show tonight.
'Zach is the most down-to-earth young fella you'll ever meet. He first came here two years ago when he played a couple of nights at The Helix.
'Hugo Keenan the rugby player is pretty friendly with him and my son, Donnacha, is good friends with Hugo. It was Hugo who had brought him back here the first time.
'They had been down in Temple Bar, but it wasn't Zach's scene. He's from a small place called Oologah in Oklahoma, which has a population of 4,000 people.
'Hugo said, 'I know a great pub,' and he brought him here that night and sure he loved it. We have a great mix of tourists and locals and there's a couple of characters in the pub as well and they like that. There's a great céad míle fáilte. The bar staff chat to everyone.
'My son, Donnacha, is a good guitar player and singer. He did a number of Irish ballads for Zach that night and the next thing Zach started singing. He's on YouTube singing songs in The Celt two years ago.'
Country star Zach Bryan
News in 90 Seconds - June 22nd
On Wednesday night Bryan took The Celt's owner Noel Tynan in an arm wrestle – later posting a photo on social media.
'It was a serious arm wrestle and I've seldom been beaten, even by rugby players, but I was shocked how quick he put me down,' Noel said yesterday. 'He's as strong as an ox.'
Noel also revealed that while Zach hasn't been back to the bar, which was mobbed on Wednesday after he revealed he was drinking there, his dad Dewayne Bryan has been in The Celt every day since – and was yesterday mingling with country fans and Limerick hurling supporters in the pub.'
'In the last couple of days Dewayne has been giving tickets for Zach's concert to people in the pub who get up and sing,' Noel added.
Although most people in Ireland weren't familiar with Zach Bryan before this weekend – his followers found him on YouTube and various music platforms.
He first began uploading his songs to YouTube in 2017, with his buddies filming him live on his iPhone. One of his songs, Heading South, finally went viral, which set him on the road to the success he's enjoying today. Following his debut on the Grand Ole Opry in 2021, he then got a record contract with Warner Records.
On Spotify, Zach, whose hits include I Remember Everything, was the third most streamed artist of 2024 in the US, with Taylor Swift being tops and Drake in second place.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
31 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Putting our schoolchildren in little suits kits them out for a non-existent adult world
Right at the top of last weekend's To Do list was a task of major developmental significance: getting the uniform for my four-year-old daughter's impending debut in the local Junior Infants class. So, with 30 minutes between the designated shop's opening time and swimming lessons, we made our approach. Hers will be a sensible uniform: a green cotton tracksuit with white polo shirt (both which — pending non-ruination — will serve her little brother in a few short years) and runners (model's own). It's sensible, that is, until she hits first class, when, like many of her unsuspecting cohort, she will be expected to wear a collared shirt, plaid skirt, and woollen(ish) jumper. While she weaves between my legs and the racks of school and sporting apparel in the uniform shop, I watch a boy I think is about eight model his uniform for his mother. In a whimsical weekend mood, I can't but be struck by how funny he looks in these garments, which, if we strip away the normalising context, are really the elements of a miniature suit. I genuinely believe this part of the institutional clothing landscape is weirder and funnier than is given credit. My reaction to the boy reminded me of a verse by the 18th-century poet Mary Barber. Barber was Irish, a friend of Jonathan Swift, and a mother of nine who wrote a lot about and to her children. The following lines are from 'Written for my Son… at his First Putting on Breeches', which is a lament about the titular son's move from looser garments into the more tailored 'breeches' popular at the time. WHAT is it our mamma's bewitches, To plague us little boys with breeches? To tyrant Custom we must yield, Whilst vanquish'd Reason flies the field. Our legs must suffer by ligation, To keep the blood from circulation; And then our feet, tho' young and tender, We to the shoemaker's surrender; Who often makes our shoes so strait, Our growing feet they cramp and fret; Whilst, with contrivance most profound, Across our insteps we are bound; Which is the cause, I make no doubt, Why thousands suffer in the gout. Leaving aside the worries about paediatric gout, Barber is obviously well attuned to the total unsuitability of trousers modelled on adult fashions to the lifestyle of a child. I'm actually fairly ambivalent on the ideologically grander question of uniforms versus no uniforms. Decent arguments can be found on either side of the issue, and it seems irritatingly plausible to me that the balance might well be tipped by individual character traits in kids. Children with issues in the box once described as 'fussy' might benefit from the morning's what to wear negotiation being taken off the table, in a way that could be expected to yield harmonious consequences for all involved. And certainly, in these times of rampant inequality in Ireland, it's easy to worry that individual school clothing choices might become yet another signifier of economic difference that could leave some kids feeling they are sticking out for the wrong reasons, or worse, actively picked on. On the other hand, shy or self-conscious children may like to have more control over what they wear, especially where uniforms are austere or heavily gender differentiated. Ditto for kids with sensory issues or sensitive skin, since affordable multipacks of school shirts are likely to be worth their weight in polyester and rayon. An itchy child is not necessarily an attentive child. Uniforms a colonial hangover A further spiritual gripe could be raised about the fact that uniforms are probably yet another lingering colonial hangover. Most European countries have moved away from uniforms in state schools, with three exceptions — Britain, Ireland and Malta. What does seem obviously silly is the chasm between the formality and cumbersomeness of the formal uniforms and the costuming tendencies of the modern workforce. Certain professions used to dress in a manner much closer to a uniform — suits for all, all the time. Putting girls in clothes that are impractical for physical activity sends a message about what we think they should be doing with their bodies that can permeate more deeply. Thus, the school uniform might plausibly have been regarded as aspirational, in styling children in a manner approximating the wardrobes of professions many parents considered desirable. But the number of professional adults in suits has fallen off a cliff in recent years, where office life has relaxed considerably. And that's before accounting for the fact that fewer people than ever spend most of the week in an office setting anyway. So, we may soon end up in a scenario where our children (whose days should be much less sedentary than many of us in the workforce) are the most formally attired among us. Before long, the only shirts may be in the courtroom and the classroom. A knock-on impact of this formality is that the parents and guardians of primary schoolers — who, it must be owned, aren't renowned for their independence — are tasked with running a more demanding laundry service than is absolutely necessary. This is especially unwelcome in a phase of life, where such people are intermixing the, let's say, somewhat capricious timetabling of the primary school calendar with other valuable hobbies like being employed or managing full-time caring arrangements. Another disadvantage of the formal uniform styles is their heavily gendered nature. Girls, who might prefer not to wear skirts, are often forced to choose an alternative that history and convention have designated 'the boy option'. Thus, deciding what to wear becomes a bigger and more sociologically loaded thing than it should be. And there are a lot of reasons to avoid skirts: Reason 1: Ireland's meteorological realities; Reason 2: Ireland's grim recent cosmetic tendencies. I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping we can keep worries like 'are these leg hairs obvious' or 'do I need fake tan?' off the table at least until secondary school; Reason 3: Wearing skirts makes doing many things I want my daughter to be doing — practising cartwheels at lunchtime, eventually cycling her bike to school, etc — difficult and potentially embarrassing to do. In Throwing like a Girl, political theorist Iris Marion Young wrote about the struggles women face in developing a natural way of engaging with the world using their bodies. The essay opens with an observation that, unlike boys of the same age, who throw their bodies fully into physical pursuits, 'the girl of five does not make any use of lateral space. She does not stretch her arm sideward; she does not twist her trunk; she does not move her legs, which remain side by side. All she does in preparation for throwing is to lift her right arm forward to the horizontal and to bend the forearm backward in a pronate position… The ball is released without force, speed, or accurate aim.' Whether or not that same observation would be true today, there's no denying young girls experience especially acute anxieties about their bodies. The insights Young offers are complex and rooted in deep theoretical concepts spanning everything from compromised phenomenology to reification of the body. But I wonder if we could point a further, simpler finger at the ways we often dress girls. Putting them in clothes that are impractical for physical activity sends a message about what we think they should be doing with their bodies that can permeate more deeply.
The Irish Sun
3 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Gigi Hadid looks stunning in bright red suit jacket and matching pencil skirt for high fashion shoot
Gigi has been dating Bradley Cooper since 2023 GIGI'S GLAD RAGS Gigi Hadid looks stunning in bright red suit jacket and matching pencil skirt for high fashion shoot SUPERMODEL Gigi Hadid smoulders in a red-hot photoshoot for V Magazine. The US star, 30, was on the button with the bright suit jacket and matching pencil skirt look in the quirky shots for the fashion glossy. 3 Gigi Hadid smoulders in a red suit and hat for V Magazine Credit: Luigi & Iango 3 In another pic Gigi poses in a Madonna-esque coned bra Credit: Luigi & Iango Channelling classic Hollywood glamour, Gigi, the big sister of fellow catwalk regular Bella Hadid, 28, topped off the stylish look with a matching red hat and mesh veil. And in a black and white image, she posed kneeling, loosely wrapped in a leather jacket to show off her Madonna-esque coned bra. Gigi's definitely got into the groove. Gigi has been dating American actor Bradley Cooper since 2023. She was previously in a relationship with former One Direction member Zayn Malik. Gigi shares four-year-old Khai with Zayn, and despite their shocking breakup, she says the couple now successfully co-parent with 'love, and a feeling of camaraderie'. Meanwhile, Bradley, 50, has an eight-year-old daughter, Lea De Seine, from his previous relationship with Gigi's friend Irina Shayk. The model was apparently instrumental in matchmaking the pair, and has such a great relationship with Bradley they still holiday together. 3 Gigi covers the latest issue of V Magazine Credit: Luigi & Iango
The Irish Sun
3 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
I just knew one day people would finally get Nick Drake, says legendary producer Joe Boyd
Drake died aged 26 in 1974 from an overdose of antidepressants, never enjoying commercial success in his lifetime, never knowing how much he would be appreciated. TROUBLED SOUL I just knew one day people would finally get Nick Drake, says legendary producer Joe Boyd 'I REMEMBER the moment I first saw Nick. He was very tall – but kind of apologetically tall.' Legendary producer Joe Boyd is casting his mind back to January 1968, to the day 'very good-looking but very self-effacing' Nick Drake dropped a tape off at his London office. 5 Nick Drake died aged 26 in 1974, never enjoying commercial success in his lifetime Credit: Getty - Contributor 'He stooped a bit, like he was trying not to seem as tall as he was. Advertisement 'It was wintertime and there were ash stains on his overcoat. He handed me the tape and trundled off. 'My first encounter with Nick's music was, most likely, that same evening or possibly the following one.' Boyd, an American who became a central figure in the late Sixties British folk-rock boom, was 25 at the time. Drake was 19. He cut a striking figure — lanky with dark shoulder-length hair framing his boyish features. Advertisement Through his company, Witchseason Productions, Boyd came to helm stellar albums by Fairport Convention (with Sandy Denny), John Martyn, Shirley Collins and The Incredible String Band. But there was something indefinably mesmerising about those three songs passed to him by the quiet teenager who studied English Literature at Cambridge University. As Boyd switched on his 'little Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder', he was captivated by Drake's soft but sure tones, allied to his intricate fingerpicking guitar. 'I think the songs were I Was Made To Love Magic, Time Has Told Me and The Thoughts Of Mary Jane,' he says. 'From the first intro to the first song, I thought, 'Whoa, this is different'.' I'm speaking to Boyd to mark the release of a beautifully curated box set, The Making Of Five Leaves Left, a treasure trove of demos, outtakes and live recordings. Advertisement Rounding it off is the finished product, Drake's debut album for Chris Blackwell's fabled Island Records pink label. Bob Dylan biopic is an immaculate portrayal of the grumpy singer's rise to fame - shame his women feel like complete unknowns In 2025, the singer's status as one of Britain's most cherished songwriters is assured. A troubled soul, Drake died aged 26 in 1974 from an overdose of antidepressants, never enjoying commercial success in his lifetime, never knowing how much he would be appreciated. But Boyd, now 83, had no doubts about the rare talent that he first encountered in 1968. He picks up the story again: 'Ashley Hutchings, the Fairport Convention bass player, saw Nick playing at The Roundhouse [in Camden Town, North London] and was very impressed. Advertisement 'He handed me a slip of paper with a phone number on it and said, 'I think you'd better call this guy, he's special'. 'So I called and Nick picked up the phone. I said, 'Do you have a tape I could hear?'. He said, 'Yes'.' Boyd still didn't hold out too much hope, as he explains: 'I was very much a blues and jazz buff. I also liked Indian music. 'White middle-class guys with guitars were never that interesting to me — Bob Dylan being the exception that proves the rule. 5 John Boyd holding The Making Of Five Leaves Left, a treasure trove of demos, outtakes and live recordings Advertisement 'But Nick was something else. He wasn't really a folk singer at all.' Boyd describes Drake as a 'chansonnier', a French term for a poet singer who performs their own compositions, often drawing on the themes of love and nature. He says: 'I'm always a bit bemused when I go into a record store — one of the few left — and see Nick filed under folk. He's unclassifiable and that's one of the reasons he endures.' To Boyd, Drake's enduring appeal is also helped 'by the fact that he didn't succeed in the Sixties'. 'He never became part of that decade's soundtrack in the way Donovan or [Pentangle guitarist and solo artist] Bert Jansch did. Advertisement 'So he was cut loose from the moorings of his era, to be grabbed by succeeding generations.' Drake was born on June 19, 1948, in Rangoon, Burma [now Myanmar], to engineer father Rodney and amateur singer mother Molly. His older sister Gabrielle became a successful screen actress. When Nick was three, the family moved to Far Leys, a house at Tanworth-in-Arden, Warks, and it was there that his parents encouraged him to learn piano and compose songs. I'm always a bit bemused when I go into a record store — one of the few left — and see Nick filed under folk. He's unclassifiable and that's one of the reasons he endures. Joe Boyd Having listened to the home recordings of Molly, Boyd gives her much credit for her son's singular approach. He says: 'When you hear the way she shaped her strange chords on the piano and her sense of harmony, it seems that it was reverberating in Nick's mind.' Advertisement When Drake gave him those three demos, recorded in his room at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Boyd 'called the next day and said, 'Come on in, let's talk'.' During the ensuing meeting, Drake said: 'I'd like to make a record.' He was offered a management, publishing and production contract. Just as importantly, he had found a mentor in Joe Boyd. What you hear on the box set is the musical journey leading up to the release of Five Leaves Left in July 1969. The set was sanctioned by the Estate Of Nick Drake, run on behalf of his sister Gabrielle by Cally Callomon, but only after two remarkable tapes were unearthed. Advertisement His first session with Boyd at Sound Techniques studio in March 1968 — found on a mono listening reel squirrelled away more than 50 years ago by Beverley Martyn, a singer and the late John Martyn's ex-wife. A full reel recorded at Caius College by Drake's Cambridge acquaintance Paul de Rivaz. It had gathered dust in the bottom of a drawer for decades. Boyd says: 'I have never been a big enthusiast for these endless sets of demos and outtakes — so I was highly sceptical about this project. 'But when my wife and I were sent the files a few months ago, we sat down one evening and listened through all four discs. 'I was tremendously moved by Nick. You can picture the scene of him arriving for the first time at Sound Techniques. 'This is what he's been working for. He's got his record deal and here he is in the studio. I was stunned.' 5 Five Leaves Left was released in 1969 Advertisement In pristine sound quality, the first disc begins with Boyd saying, 'OK, here we go, whatever it is, take one.' Drake then sings the outtake followed by some of his best-loved songs — Time Has Told Me, Saturday Sun, Day Is Done among them. It's just man and guitar, recorded before musicians such as Pentangle's double bass player Danny Thompson and Fairport Convention's guitarist Richard Thompson (no relation) were drafted in. Boyd continues: 'The trigger for those recordings, that first day in the studio, was wanting our wonderful engineer John Wood to get a feel for Nick's sound. 'Nick was wide awake and on it. He was excited about being in a studio and he wanted to impress.' Advertisement All these years later, one song in particular caught Boyd's attention — Day Is Done. 'He takes it more slowly than the final version. This gives him time to add more nuance and the singing is so good.' Back then, as Five Leaves Left took shape, Boyd witnessed the sophisticated way Drake employed strings, oboe and flute. Inspired by subtle orchestrations on Leonard Cohen's debut album, Boyd had drafted in arranger Richard Hewson but it didn't work out. 'It was nice, but it wasn't Nick,' he affirms. Advertisement When Drake suggested his Cambridge friend Robert Kirby, a Baroque music scholar, everything fell into place. Boyd says: 'Nick had already been engaging with Robert about using a string quartet but had been hesitant about putting his ideas forward.' SUBTLE ORCHESTRATIONS The producer also recalls being 'fascinated by the lyrics — the work of a literate guy'. 'I don't want to sound elitist but Nick was well educated. British public school [Marlborough College] and he got into Cambridge. 'Gabrielle told me he didn't like the romantic poets much. But you feel that he's very aware of British poetry history.' Advertisement This is evident in the first lines of the opening song on Five Leaves Left — 'Time has told me/You're a rare, rare find/A troubled cure for a troubled mind.' 'When I think about Nick, I think about the painting, The Death Of Chatterton,' says Boyd. 'Chatterton was a young romantic British poet who died, I think, by suicide. You see him sprawled out across a bed.' I ask Boyd how aware he was of Drake's struggles with his mental health. 'It's a tricky question because I was aware that he was very shy,' he answers. 'Who knew what was going on with him and girls?' Boyd believes there was a time when Drake was better able to enjoy life's pleasures. Advertisement 'When you read of his adventures in the south of France and in Morocco, it seems he was more relaxed and joyful. 5 Drake at home with mother Molly and sister Gabrielle 'And when I went up to Cambridge to meet Nick and Robert Kirby before we did the first session, he was in a dorm. 'There were friends walking in and out of the room. There was a lot of life around him.' Boyd says things changed when 'Nick told me he wanted to leave Cambridge and move to London. Advertisement 'I agreed to give him a monthly stipend to help him survive. He rented a bedsit in Hampstead — you could do that in those days. 'Nick started smoking a lot of hashish and didn't seem to see many people. I definitely noticed a difference. 'He'd been at Marlborough, he'd been at Cambridge and suddenly he's on his own, smoking dope, practising the guitar, going out for a curry, coming back to the guitar some more. He became more and more isolated and closed off'. Boyd describes how Drake found live performance an almost unbearable challenge. He says: 'He had different tunings for every song, which took a long time. He didn't have jokes. So he'd lose his audience and get discouraged.' Advertisement 'It still haunts me that I left the UK' For Drake's next album, Bryter Layter, recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, Boyd remained in charge of production. Despite all the albums he's worked on, including REM's Fables Of The Reconstruction and Kate and Anna McGarrigle's classic debut, he lists Bryter Layter as a clear favourite. It bears the poetic masterpiece Northern Sky with its heartrending opening line – 'I never felt magic crazy as this.' Boyd says: 'I can drop the needle and relax, knowing that John Wood and I did the best we could.' However, he adds that it still 'haunts me that I left for a job with Warner Bros in California after that. I was very burnt out and didn't appreciate how much Nick may have been affected by my leaving'. Advertisement Drake responded to Boyd's departure by saying, 'The next record is just for guitar and voice, anyway'. Boyd continues: 'So I said, 'Well, you don't need me any more. You can do that with John Wood'.' When he was sent a test pressing of 1972's stripped-back Pink Moon, he recalls being 'slightly horrified'. 'I thought it would end Nick's chances of commercial success. It's ironic that it now sells more than his other two.' Then, roughly a year after leaving the UK, Boyd got a worried call from Drake's mum. 'Molly said she had urged Nick to see a psychiatrist because he had been struggling,' he says, with sadness, 'and that he had been prescribed antidepressants. Advertisement 'I know Nick was hesitant to take them. He felt people would judge him as crazy — a typically British response.' Boyd again uses the word 'haunting' when recalling the transatlantic phone call he made to Drake. 'I said, 'There's nothing shameful about taking medicine when you've got a problem'. I know Nick was hesitant to take them [antidepressants]. He felt people would judge him as crazy — a typically British response Joe Boyd 'But I think antidepressant dosages were way higher in those days than they became. 'Doctors didn't appreciate the rollercoaster effect — how you could get to a peak of elation and freedom, then suddenly plunge back into depression. Advertisement 'Who knows but it might have contributed to the feeling of despair Nick felt the night he took all those extra pills.' 5 Boyd says of Drake: 'He's unclassifiable and that's one of the reasons he endures' Drake died at home in Warwickshire during the early hours of November 25, 1974. As for Boyd, he made a lasting commitment to the singer who had such a profound effect on him. He says: 'When I left, I gave my company to Chris Blackwell because there were more debts than assets — and he agreed to take on the debts. 'But I said, 'I want it written in the contract that you cannot delete Nick Drake. Those records have to stay. Advertisement 'I just knew that one day people would get him.'
