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Irish Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
30 years since Riverdance blew our minds and our 'holy f**ks' still echo'
IT remains a flame that will never burn low for anybody gifted a ringside seat for its mighty, ecstatic, hot-blooded, jaw-dropping, spine-tingling, seven-minutes-of-wonderment unveiling. In truth, we were more than a little tipsy that night, yet even through that long-ago fug of alcohol, the wave of rapture that invaded the packed bar where we witnessed - stupefied, teary, a chorus of astonished "holy f***s" the only words we could summon - Riverdance being midwifed into the world remains as vivid three decades on as Michael Flatley's immaculately waxed chest. It felt like a detonation of some new Irishness, a marriage of ancient dance and modern expression, something liberating and fresh invading both the evening and the heart with its riveting beauty, mesmerising a global audience of some 300 million. Before writing this piece, to reassure myself my memory wasn't playing tricks, I re-watched Flatley and, first, Jean Butler thundering onto the stage at The Point Theatre on April 30th 1994, the interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest. It is gobsmacking, electrifying, primal, emotional, an authentic "wow" moment that retains all its capacity to fire a lovely cascade of shivers down the spinal chord. A cocktail of fiddles and bodhráns, the lead dancers owning the coliseum, alone under the klieg lights, a triumph of athletic movement, rhythmic tempo, exquisite balance and beguiling cadence. Master and Mistress of the universe. The urge then was to lock away the memory, retain it for the rest of time, the same compulsion that might overwhelm an art lover on encountering a renaissance master's brushstrokes hanging on the gallery walls of the Louvre. At that moment it felt unsurpassable. Perfect. Before it became a commercial behemoth - one watched live by more than 30 million people (five times the population of Ireland) at some 15,000 performances in 49 countries, selling over 10 million DVDs worldwide) - there was this. Just this. A seven minute slot. A transfixed house erupting in spontaneous, orgasmic acclaim. An 'is this really happening?' sense of disbelief and awe. And, as the camera pans to a breathless Flatley, giggling as he accepts the rapture of the audience, the vertigo of new possibilities opening dizzyingly before him, an impossibly youthful Gerry Ryan asking his audience a rhetorical question. "What about that, stunning music, amazing dancing, was that or was it not the most spectacular performance you have ever seen?" Few who had watched Flatley's feet move as if fired from the mouth of a howitzer were inclined to raise a dissenting voice. Looking at it now through the telescope of all those years, Ryan's words don't feel remotely contrived or rehearsed, but, rather an instinctive and visceral response to something irresistible. I was 25 years of age and Irish dancing was so far distant on the polar opposite side of the bandwidth to my interests that it might have existed on the dark side of the moon. And yet, like half the nation, I was entranced by the orchestra of sounds and the sway of elegant, angelic movement. Flatley and Butler had carried the night into another dimension. Our football team was in the long since vanished O'Dwyer's Bar on Dublin's Mount Street, celebrating a league title we had claimed that afternoon courtesy of our own exhibition of superior, Flatley-esque footwork (for some reason I still haven't figured we never toured the world, never had to fight off groupies, never made tens of millions, but, hey, them's the breaks). The Eurovision was on in the background. Nobody was too bothered. Then Bill Whelan's score exploded into life and it was like every living creature in that bustling tavern had been hypnotised. There was never a moment over the next 500 or so seconds when our attention was allowed veer from the TV screen. It was that good, that instantly stimulating, dance as mainlined narcotic, a mood-altering Celtic opiate. Sense of place played a significant role in the elemental ache of joy. It was one of the few times since Italia 90 four years earlier that I had felt that sudden surge - call it patriotism, call it a sense of belonging, call it pride in our heritage - that fills a room to the brim with something I can only describe as heartsoar. We embraced and emoted as we had at the end of the game a few hours earlier. I think there might even have been an eruption of the dreaded Oles. It was a slightly self-conscious way of trying to mask the fact that we were all on the verge of sobbing. It really was that powerful. There we were, a group whose preferred music ranged from The Jam to Bowie to Ska to The Stones, incontinent with emotion because of something we might have scoffed at ten minutes earlier. We were in our native city, yet for some reason the lyric that best describes how I felt in that moment comes from U2's A Sort of Homecoming. "For tonight, at last/I am coming home/I am coming home." So many of those Eurovision interval slots tend to be twee and insecure, but here was an exhibition of rip-roaring Irish self-confidence. A visual, aural, comfortable-in-its-skin feast of excellence. A year later, Riverdance went on the road, and it is that 30th anniversary landmark that was celebrated this week at The Gaiety and at various afterparties that ran long into the night. A confession: I have never been to the full show and never felt an urgent need. In some perverse way, I find the vast global ATM - churning out dollars and yen and all the currencies of the world - into which it has transformed, slightly off-putting. But, we'll always have O'Dwyer's. The emotions awakened by that seismic seven minute rumble in 1994 were sufficiently pure to last a hundred lifetimes. Its innocence; the bone-shaking delight of Flatley hot-footing across the floor with manic, charismatic glee; Butler's effortless elegance and natural-born class; the blur of feet; the way the music hit you beneath the rib cage; the astonishment as we observed the birth of something magical and, the way it made us all all remains gloriously evocative. Ireland would win the Eurovision that night - back then, as invincible as a team co-managed by Jim Gavin and John Kiely, we almost always won - courtesy of Charlie McGettigan and Paul Harrington performing Rock 'n' Roll Kids. Harrington watched the interval act from backstage and still recalls how the arena convulsed. "That night," he says, "felt like the beginning of the roar of the Celtic Tiger and I was right at the epicentre." Riverdance became a synonym for excellence, for a slightly mythical Irish form of self-expression, a way of articulating a cultural moment that triggered a wash of reverence. Liam Griffin, the messianic and erudite Wexford manager who led the county to a first All-Ireland title for 28 years in 1996, lovingly depicted hurling as the "Riverdance of sport." His poetic description was both arresting and apt. Here were two uniquely Irish forms of cultural expression, both dances, one using feet, the other a sliotar and a wand of ash, each seeming to eloquently express a powerful sense of Irishness. In their liquid movement, their natural flow, Cian Lynch or Patrick Horgan or TJ Reid might well be riverdancing. A great hurling match is both a spectacle and a feeling. It finds your gut. It lifts you to a place of brighter light, this tumultuous choir of stick and ball and galloping athletes. At its best, it dresses itself in a cloak of myth. As Flatley and Butler did all those years ago. On Anna Livia's banks, they danced their dance and the ancient river was not alone in nodding its damp, splashing head in approval, in understanding it had witnessed the shifting of Irish art to the highest ground.
Irish Independent
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Michael Flatley alleges ‘blatant' level of ‘overcharging' in new row over legal bill in Castlehyde mansion case
Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley is embroiled in another row in the Commercial Court over a €1.4m disputed costs bill associated with the recent efforts to keep a receiver from the door of his Cork mansion, Castlehyde.
BreakingNews.ie
28-05-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Michael Flatley in dispute over €1.4m legal costs after Cork mansion court battle
Riverdance star Michael Flatley is embroiled in another legal row, this time over a €1.4 million disputed costs bill associated with the recent battle to keep a receiver from the door of his Cork mansion. Mr Flatley claimed he was shocked at what he called 'the blatant level' of alleged "overcharging'. Advertisement In an affidavit to the Commercial Court where he is disputing six-figure sums in legal and receiver fees, Mr Flatley alleged he may be seen "as an easy mark for inflated costs." In dispute are a receiver costs bill of €86,000 plus legal costs of €186,000, along with €793,000 in legal fees from the opposing side in the legal battle for the Castlehyde mansion. In the affidavit to the court, Mr Flatley claimed there was also a charge for 13 hours put in by the joint receivers for attendance at the High Court at a combined rate of €1,000 an hour. At one stage Mr Flatley also said: "I have no objection to paying fees in general but in circumstances where the fees are exorbitant and mainly unvouched and unjustified and lacking transparency the vouching of the documents sought is in the interests of justice." Advertisement The court on Wednesday was considering an application by the Flatley side in which it was seeking certain documents from the Novellus side, including the receiver's report, a contemporaneous record of tasks carried out by the receivers and a full breakdown of invoices and timesheets from third-party providers to the receivers. The Flatley side want the documentation as part of their bid to have the court decide in relation to the €1.4 million in disputed costs. Mr Flatley's counsel, Ronnie Hudson BL instructed by solicitor Maxwell Mooney, said Mr Flatley had no objection to paying costs, "but he needs transparency." "The only motivation of Michael Flatley is to get the money back," Mr Hudson said. Counsel for Novellus and the receivers, Kelley Smith SC, said previously all allegations made by the Flatley side were withdrawn and her side were concerned about the motivation behind the latest application. Advertisement Ms Smith said it was misconceived and was "more of the same grandstanding." Last March, Mr Flatley paid off a €6.9 million loan on his Castelhyde mansion to save it from the receiver. The original legal battle related to a loan made to Mr Flatley's Blackbird Film Productions Ltd by Novellus Finance Ltdin 2023 with repayments of €67,000 per month over two years. Novellus claimed there had been default on repayment, which Mr Flatley denied. Mr Flatley provided a guarantee for the loan on the strength of the value of his Castlehyde mansion. As a result of the alleged default, Novellus appointed a receiver over the property. Advertisement Ireland Michael Flatley regards payment of €6.9m mansion l... Read More An interim injunction was granted to the Flatley side to prevent the receiver from taking further measures in relation to Castlehyde and a judge conducted a two-day hearing on the matter. The Flatley side asked the court to hold off on giving judgement on whether to set aside the interim injunction stopping the receiver taking steps or grant an interlocutory injunction to the Flatley side and said Mr Flatley was flying into Dublin to pay off the loan. The €6.9 million loan was finally paid off but the issue of certain disputed costs remained. Mr Justice Mark Sanfey had reserved his judgement to a later date.
Irish Examiner
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Michael Flatley challenges 'blatant level' of alleged 'overcharging' by receiver in Cork mansion case
Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley is embroiled in another legal row, this time over a €1.4million disputed costs bill associated with the recent battle to keep a receiver from the door of his Cork mansion Castlehyde. And the entertainer, in an affidavit to the Commercial Court where he is disputing six-figure sums in legal and receiver fees, claimed he was shocked at what he called 'the blatant level' of alleged "overcharging'. Referring to a receiver costs bill of €86,000 plus legal costs of €186,000 Michael Flatley alleged he may be seen "as an easy mark for inflated costs". Also in dispute are €793,000 in legal fees from the opposing side in the Castlehyde receiver battle. In the affidavit to the court the dancing star claimed that there was also an alleged charge for 13 hours allegedly put in by the joint receivers for attendance at the High Court at a combined rate of €1000 an hour. At one stage Mr Flatley also said: "I have no objection to paying fees in general but in circumstances where the fees are exorbitant and mainly unvouched and unjustified and lacking transparency the vouching of the documents sought is in the interests of justice.' The court on Wednesday was considering an application by the Flatley side in which it was seeking certain documents from the Novellus side including the receiver's report, a contemporaneous record of tasks carried out by the receivers and a full breakdown of invoices and timesheets from third-party providers to the receivers. The Flatley side want the documentation as part of their bid to have the court decide in relation to the €1.4million in disputed costs. Mr Flatley's counsel, Ronnie Hudson BL instructed by Maxwell Mooney solicitor, said Michael Flatley has no objection to paying costs, but he needs transparency. "The only motivation of Michael Flatley is to get the money back," counsel said. Case background Counsel for Novellus and the receivers, Kelley Smith SC, said previously all allegations made by the Flatley side were withdrawn and her side was concerned about the motivation behind the latest application. Counsel said it was misconceived and was "more of the same grandstanding". Last March, Mr Flatley paid off a €6.9million loan on his Castlehyde mansion to save it from the receiver. The original legal battle related to a loan made to Mr Flatley's Blackbird Film Productions Ltd by Novellus Finance Ltd with registered offices at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, in 2023 with repayments of €67,000 per month over two years. Novellus claimed there had been default on repayment, which Mr Flatley denied. Mr Flatley provided a guarantee for the loan on the strength of the value of his Castlehyde mansion. As a result of the alleged default, Novellus appointed a receiver over the property. An interim injunction was granted to the Flatley side to prevent the receiver from taking further measures in relation to Castlehyde and a judge conducted a two-day hearing on the matter. The Flatley side asked the court to hold off on giving judgement on whether to set aside the interim injunction stopping the receiver taking steps or grant an interlocutory injunction to the Flatley side and said Mr Flatley was flying into Dublin to pay off the loan. The €6.9m loan was finally paid off but the issue of certain disputed costs remained. Mr Justice Mark Sanfey had reserved his judgement to a later date. Read More Michael Flatley faces new battle over security for costs at Cork's Castlehyde
