Talented Tipperary artists humbled to receive prestigious awards

Three Tipperary men, who have achieved so much success in their respective careers, accepted Tipperary Person of the Year accolades with humility and pride last Saturday.
The talents of Hall of Fame winner, Tipperary composer Brendan Graham, and the Person of the Year award winners, the 2 Johnnies, Johnny ‘Smacks’ McMahon and Johnny ‘B’ O’Brien, were recognised by the Tipperary Association Dublin on Sunday.

PROUD FAMILIES
The three recipients gave heartfelt and emotional acceptance speeches as they were presented with the prestigious awards with their proud families and friends in attendance.
It was a joyous occasion for the guests who were treated to a very special moment as Brendan Graham joined Paul Harrington on stage to sing Rock and Roll Kids.
The composer of the song that won the Eurovision 30 years ago last Tuesday and Paul Harrington invited the guests to sing along at the Tippeary Dublin Association annual event.
Johnny ‘B’ said he was humbled to join the list of previous winners of the Tipperary Person of the Year award.
“We are very proud to be from Tipperary. If people know anything about us, they will know that we are from Tipperary,” he said.

COMMUNITY
He said it was very important to them that they were able to do their RTE 2FM show Drive It With the 2 Johnnies from Cahir allowing them to remain in the heart of their own community.

Johnny ‘Smacks’ McMahon thanked the members of the Tipperary Dublin Association for selecting them for the Person of the Year award.
“We love being from Tipperary, you will never take Tipperary out of us,” he told guests.
Nenagh composer Brendan Graham told the guests that he was very lucky to have had such a song as Rock and Roll Kids.
“The Eurovision was one of those wonderful things,” he said.
Brendan said no matter what accolades were given from abroad, there was something very special to be recognised at home in Tipperary.

Brendan said he was delighted that Paul Harrington, who along with Charlie McGettigan won the Eurovision for Ireland with the song 30 years ago, was present at the Tipperary Dublin Association awards ceremony to mark the anniversary.
The awards were presented by Tom Sherlock, President of the Tipperary Dublin Association and sponsors Louis Fitzgerald and Willie Aherne of the Palace Bar.
Presenting the award to the 2 Johnnies, Tom Sherlock said the extraordinary success of their podcasts, You Tube channel, live shows, RTE programmes and radio shows had made them household names in Ireland.

GENTLEMAN
Presenting the Hall of Fame award to Brendan Graham, Tom Sherlock said he was an absolute gentleman, unaffected by his worldwide fame and proud of his Tippeary heritage.

He reminded the guests that Brendan Graham had also written another Eurovision winner with The Voice, sung by Eimear Quinn, bringing further Eurovision success to Ireland two years on from the Rock and Roll Kids success.

WATCH: Tipperary composer Brendan Graham sing Rock and Roll Kids with Paul Harrington

30th anniversary of Eurovision victory for Ireland

Brendan also wrote Isle of Hope, Isle of Dreams sung by Sean Keane and The Chieftans and You Raise Me Up which has been covered by different artists almost 1,000 times and translated into 50 different languages.
It was a number 1 hit in the U.S. Adult Billboard Chart for six weeks . It also topped the U.S. Billboard Christian charts. It was also an international hit for Westlife and has been broadcast over a million times on U.S. radio.