Richie Kavanagh is marking a whopping 30 years of his chart-topping hit Aon Focal Eile . The comedy song<\/a>, written as part of his stage act, went from a local favourite to a national phenomenon after Gerry Ryan picked it up on RT\u00c9 <\/a>2fm in 1996. It knocked Take That off the top of the charts, spent seven weeks at No.1, went triple platinum, and earned Richie an IRMA award for Best Single of the Year.<\/p>\n The singer also recently released a book, entitled Richie Kavanagh: Craic, Stories & Songs , which is packed with lyrics, stories and photographs from over the course of his impressive career<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here, Richie and his son James chat to RSVP Country about his career, his health and how a new generation of people all over the world are discovering Richie\u2019s music.<\/p>\n When his song Aon Focal Eile hit the charts in 1996, Richie was already well-known across much of the country. Having always had a passion for comedy and entertainment, the Carlow native had put together an act, which included his alter ego \u2018Johnny\u2019, as part of his comedy routine.<\/p>\n \u201cI had kind of a small success with the local radio stations,\u201d Richie recalled. \u201cI put a little show together, it was basically a comedy show and I had this character Johnny. I used to write sketches and comedy stuff. As part of the comedy show, I wrote Aon Focal Eile .<\/p>\n \u201cOne night after a show, an English fella came up to me and said, \u2018have you got that song on tape?\u2019 I said, \u2018no, I didn\u2019t record one\u2019, and he told me I should. I went and recorded it, and the lads in the studio said, \u2018they won\u2019t be playing that on the radio anyway\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Tony Kehoe from South East Radio played it one Saturday morning, and then Gerry Ryan started playing it, and it ended up being No. 1 for seven weeks, with 27 weeks in the top 30. By the time that happened, I was well-known around the country. I was ready to go. I had an act together and I went on tour.\u201d<\/p>\n When fame came knocking on Richie\u2019s door, it was an amazing time for the family. Richie\u2019s son and manager James remembers the glitz and glamour of his dad being in the charts.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he got the IRMA award for Best Single of the Year, I was doing my Leaving Cert at the time,\u201d said James. \u201cWe were there and the Spice Girls were beside us. I had a great time getting to meet all of these superstars.\u201d<\/p>\n Richie wasn\u2019t only rubbing shoulders with celebrities, but had celebrity fans as well.<\/p>\n \u201cHe went to do a gig in Monte Carlo in 1996 and who arrives at the gig, only Jeremy Clarkson,\u201d said James. \u201cHe\u2019s had fans come to his gigs that you\u2019d never think would be into his music \u2013 Shane McGowan and Niall Horan.\u201d<\/p>\n His book chronicles the famous faces he\u2019s met over the years. Alongside 150 songs and stories, the book contains a treasure chest of memories in the form of rare celebrity photographs, from a fresh-faced Niall Horan at his brother\u2019s Communion, to Shane MacGowan asking Richie for a selfie, to moments with the late Christy Dignam of Aslan. Other surprises include TV favourites Podge and Rodge, and The 2 Johnnies.<\/p>\n The book also carries a foreword from the late broadcaster and songwriter Shay Healy, who called Richie \u201ca true national treasure\u201d.<\/p>\n One could even argue that Richie is an international treasure, because despite the fact that Aon Focal Eile became a big hit 30 years ago, he still has fans all over the world and from all walks of life.<\/p>\n \u201cA man rang me recently and he has a child that\u2019s four years of age who\u2019s non-verbal,\u201d said James. \u201cBut he put on Richie\u2019s song Stay Wut Her Johnny one day and now the child watches Richie everyday on YouTube.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to hear stories like that, there\u2019s so many special kids who have come to the gigs over the years. There\u2019s so many kids who love Richie\u2019s videos, they\u2019re very much about country life and I think that\u2019s what captures people\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s popular even in New Zealand and out to Australia and America. People have paid stupid money to ship his book abroad, which is amazing. It\u2019s great that people are willing to pay that extra few bucks, and he has fans across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n For Richie, he\u2019s delighted he is still reaching people with his music far and wide, and has social media outlets like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok to thank for it.<\/p>\n \u201cAll those social media outlets have been very good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had the cassette tapes, and then we had videos, then CDs and DVDs, and they came to an end. I thought that\u2019s the end of that now, people won\u2019t have any way of hearing me or buying new songs. But this internet thing started then and that has made me more popular than I ever was, probably.\u201d<\/p>\n James added: \u201cIt\u2019s mad to see after all the years, 30 years, if I bring Richie into Dublin, or if we stopped in Athlone or Roscommon, the minute we\u2019d stop, there\u2019d be lads over asking, \u2018How are ya, Richie?\u2019 It used to be autographs, but now it\u2019s a selfie!\u201d<\/p>\n His music and comedy have taken on a new lease of life lately, with other entertainers and musicians reinvigorating the genre. At 76, he is still as relevant and revered by young people in Ireland as ever.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of young fellas going to secondary school and going on their bus tours sing all my songs,\u201d said Richie. \u201cI do gigs in colleges and places, and they\u2019re mad into the stuff. I think there\u2019s a real resurgence with this sort of stuff, with The Tumbling Paddies and all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n James continued: \u201cThat kind of music is coming back. Richie over the years, he\u2019s been in between everything, because he\u2019s not country music but he kind of is. He used to call himself \u2018rowdily dowd\u2019 music. He\u2019s kind of in the middle of the whole thing.<\/p>\n \u201cBut The Tumbling Paddies and The 2 Johnnies, that\u2019s the kind of area he would have been in music, but there wasn\u2019t an area like that. The 2 Johnnies have been very good on the podcast to have Richie\u2019s t-shirts and CDs up on the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n His videos and songs are still racking up millions of streams worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back on Richie\u2019s songs, his most popular song on the downloads now is Chicken Talk , which has 25 million views across the world. The second is usually Stay Wut Her Johnny , then his next most popular is Aon Focal Eile ,\u201d said James.<\/p>\n Looking back on the highlights of his career, meeting fans has always been at the heart of it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe love the National Ploughing Championships every year, it\u2019s massive. There\u2019s people coming to the tent every year looking for a new album,\u201d said James.<\/p>\n However, over the years he had to turn some opportunities down too because the timing wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n \u201cBritain\u2019s Got Talent rang us and they wanted Richie to go on,\u201d James recalled. \u201cThey said, \u2018you don\u2019t have to queue, you\u2019ll go straight into the green room, we love your music and your style\u2019. We turned it down. It could have been good but we decided no.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was Ireland\u2019s Got Talent, I\u2019d have done it straight away, they\u2019d get the craic,\u201d joked Richie.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother phone call I got that I turned down was Dancing With The Stars ,\u201d James added.<\/p>\n Three decades down the road, Richie remains as warm and witty as ever. Even after being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease in 2010, he continues to \u201ckeep the best side out\u201d. His love for writing and performing hasn\u2019t been diminished by the condition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing fairly well,\u201d he said. \u201cMy legs are not the best, but other than that I\u2019m doing good. I\u2019m still writing songs as well. I put them out now and again on social media. On days that my voice is good, I set up the camera here and do some comedy and songs.\u201d<\/p>\n You can order Richie\u2019s book, Richie Kavanagh: Craic, Stories & Songs at www.richiekavanagh.ie<\/strong><\/p>\n Pick up the Spring edition of RSVP Country on shelves now.<\/strong><\/p>\n You can buy your copy and have it delivered directly to your door through our online shop here.<\/a> Postage fees apply.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to<\/strong> see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> <\/strong>? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google,<\/strong> simply click here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsvplive.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richie Kavanagh is marking a whopping 30 years of his chart-topping hit Aon Focal Eile . The comedy song, written as part of his stage act, went from a local favourite to a national phenomenon after Gerry Ryan picked it up on RT\u00c9 2fm in 1996. It knocked Take That off the top of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2342637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[22846,41508,367618,306173],"class_list":["post-2342636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-country-music","tag-dancing-with-the-stars","tag-dublin","tag-ireland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Richie-Kavanagh-on-living-with-Parkinsons-overnight-fame-and-30.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342638,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342636\/revisions\/2342638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}