I’m just home after a 10 day stint with Sinéad Ó’Connor on her Irish tour. We stopped in Limerick, Wexford, Kilkenny, Dublin and Cork (There was no guest at the Galway concert). The Vicar street shows are up there with my all time great gigs, the second night in particular. I ended four of the concerts on a poem (Late Developer) and I might just have heard a pin drop, they brought the house down. What a crowd AND in my old home town!

Me reading ‘Late Developer’ from Reconstructions.

(Photo: Kenny Ruttledge)

Kilkenny was fabulous and what a note to end the tour on. I felt so welcome that I even tried a new song on their ears. Another high point of the tour. CDs and books galore, astonished by the warm reaction to my songs, stories and poems. There were on average 1300-1500 people at each concert, and Sinéad played blinders at every one of them.

Photo: Kenny Ruttledge)

What tops six shows opening for Sinéad O’Connor? Getting to see her six times, SIX times! What a woman, what an artist. I’m flattered, humbled, astonished, chuffed, overwhelmed and encouraged by the whole experience. It did me no harm. Blessed to have been asked and to have met so many sound people, including the members of her fabulous band.

 (Photos: Nikki Stix)

Steafán being interviewed on Sky News London.

I woke up on Saturday morning surrounded by cameras and these two lovely hosts in Sky Studios London.

What a heady week of it, first the UK launch of Reconstructions at the University of Oxford, then this. It was over before it began. Turns out Sky had no wig department and my insurance plan wouldn’t cover the most pressing plastic surgery work. Still, got to plug the book.

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