Life turns full circle. I’m thinking this as I sit across the radio studio from Fr Brian D’Arcy. I’m sitting in Stephen Nolan’s studio, in his seat actually in BBC, Belfast. And I’m here to interview Fr Brian about his latest memoir, It Has to be Said.

Connie Lynch was one of Ireland’s best-known showband managers back in the 1960-70s. He managed Brendan Bowyer and the Big 8, Dickie Rock and the late Brendan Grace among others.

Louis Walsh credits Connie with giving him his break. And it was Connie who, along with his pal Jimmy Magee, started the Jimmy Magee All Stars.

The town was packed with people anxious to see all these showband singers

Their first match was played on 6 June 1966 in Ballyjamesduff, Connie’s home town and my Dad’s too. Dad remembers driving Brendan Bowyer from Dublin to Ballyjamesduff that night.

The town was packed with people anxious to see all these showband singers and inter-county footballers, playing a challenge match for charity in the flesh. Fr Brian, a young student priest and music columnist back then was welcomed into the All Stars family by Jimmy, a big break for him as a budding showband reporter.

Connie was also a Cavan GAA fanatic and like so many Cavan exiles in Dublin, lived in Castleknock, around the corner from us. Dad and Connie were great friends and from when I was a boy, we’d set off around the country following Cavan through thick and thin, in league and championship hail, rain or snow. And I’d sit in the back seat listening to Connie’s stories about the latest gigs and shows.

Believe it or not, people who come to RTÉ and see the studios for the first time still do find it fascinating

He knew all these famous people and had a photo of himself, George Best and broadcaster Mike Murphy hanging in his office among a gallery of showband and country and western singers. One Saturday, he was taking Brendan Bowyer into RTÉ for an interview with Jimmy Magee on his Saturday sports and music programme.

I remember going into the studio and thinking, “Wow”. Believe it or not, people who come to RTÉ and see the studios for the first time still do find it fascinating and I always enjoy being able to bring guests over to The Late Late Show set or the studio from where the RTÉ news is read. I was that giddy soldier the day Connie took me in to studio 10 in the radio centre to watch Jimmy Magee broadcast his show live.

The fact I can clearly remember my first time in that very studio as an excited and curious 15- or 16-year-old tells me that a seed must have been sown that day

Little did I think that one day I would be sitting in that very studio broadcasting my own show, or even better sitting behind the glass producing Sunday Sport presented by Jimmy Magee.

The fact I can clearly remember my first time in that very studio as an excited and curious 15- or 16-year-old tells me that a seed must have been sown that day.

With all today’s distractions in life, I’m sure a visit to a radio studio wouldn’t sound too glamorous to any teenager but I still get a scent in my nostrils as I walk in, which takes me back to that very first introduction to radio life.

Jimmy and Connie were very much part of that, and it was through them that I first met Brian D’Arcy at an All Stars match which Connie took me to soon after. Now three decades later here we are reminiscing on radio, a medium we both love, about those two great men gone to their eternal reward. Only for them, the two of us may not be sitting here. Yes how life turns full circle.

Who’s to blame?

Politicians are their own worst enemy. Vote Gate proves that. But for those complaining as if they are untouchable, they don’t elect themselves. You elect them and you know you can run for office too!