Dublin 4
Ireland
Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell will officially launch ‘Castlebar International Song Contest’ – a comprehensive 22-year history by Paddy McGuinness of the famous contest which all started back in 1966 with just 70 entries to find a song that may make the town of Castlebar better known.
Paddy McGuinness, our ‘Mayo Person of the Year’ in 2000, who was one of the contest’s directors on a number of occasions, has written this book about this contest, staged in Castlebar from 1966 to 1988, which had the second richest prize fund of song contests worldwide, and attracted songwriters from all over the world.
And in the space of 22 years, it boasted the second highest prize fund for any song contest in the world. It had attracted 17,653 entries from songwriters in every continent and had become and one of RTE’s flagship programmes in the station’s annual schedule.
The history contains the facts and results from all of the contests, including fond memories from Gay Byrne, Terry Wogan, Mike Murphy and Acker Bilk. It also features photographs, many of which have not been seen before!
The book is on sale for €25 on www.mayobooks.ie or bit.ly/2xhOBkv. It would make a great Christmas gift for those who would like to have all of the facts and stories of the annual musical extravaganza!