Just when we thought we couldn’t love Dermot O’Leary anymore he pays a visit to the studios of RTÉ and has the Late Late Show audience singing along to one of his favourite Irish tracks from his childhood.
If you missed last night’s Late Late Show, well we hate to tell you but you probably missed the highlight of the series.
Tubs was joined by the brilliant Graham Norton, Kerry legend Paul Galvin, crime journalist Paul Williams and saving the very best until last, Dermot O’Leary.
The X Factor host was in absolutely flying form as he took a seat beside Tubridy looking out at the audience telling them that his appearance was one ‘to tick off the box’.
O’Leary recalled his traditionally Irish upbringing at his home just outside London, telling tales about his parents and his many summer holidays spent here on the Emerald Isle.
The 41-year-old was there to promote his brand new autobiography titled Dermot O’Leary: The Soundtrack To My Life.
“Brendan Shine was my hero when I was 8-years-old,” he reveals, telling the audience not to laugh.
“The way it would work where I grew up, which was just about 50 miles outside London – it was very different, it was a very strange upbringing, it was a very Irish upbringing in a very British place.
“It was a very Irish household, to all intensive purposes it was our little Ireland”, he continued.
“We had picture of the Pope, we’d go to mass on a Sunday and we’d either see the rest of the Irish people at mass and we’d have dinner with them or they’d end up coming back to our house and we’d have a bit of a céilí in the evening and what not. Or my father would go up to London and play hurling for the Fr. Murphy’s”.
O’ Leary continued to explain how music was a ‘big part’ of all of the above, paying homage to one song in particular.
“Brendan Shine, as a kid, was the only Irish song that was a bit happy… so what appealed to me was a man that said ‘would you like your lobby washed down for some money’ or ‘I’m a bachelor, I’m off to Lisdoonvarna, I’d quite like a wife'”.
His father brought him to see Shine when he was just 8, however O’Leary missed the performance because he fell asleep. He did manage to meet him backstage after the gig, something that he calls his father a hero for.
The TV legend had the Late Late audience sing along with him to his favourite Shine song ‘Catch Me If You Can’, before Tubridy presented him with a signed copy of Shine’s greatest hits.
Closing out the interview, O’ Leary made sure to wish his aunt a happy birthday, proving once again that he is one of the nicest guys in the business.
Take 14-minutes to watch the interview in full here on the RTÉ player, it is well worth it.
