This might sound like a populist and elitist statement to make, but I’m going to say it anyway: When will the rest of the country, and particularly Dublin, wake up to the fact that Cork holds the answers to so many of this nation’s problems?

Example: The Eurovision Song Contest.

Last year, you might recall that Macroom singer Bambie Thug restored national pride in the annual extravaganza, after a string of dismal failures from other counties for the previous two decades.

Only the second act to represent the Rebel County on the Eurovision stage in our 57 appearances, Bambie actually qualified from the semi-final, then came a highly-creditable sixth in the final with the song Doomsday Blue.

The song and stage show was hip, it was different, and it finally showed the rest of Europe that Ireland (well, Cork) was capable of a bit more than run-of-the-mill pap pop and self-pitying ballads. We could do weird and wonderful with the best of them.

Bambie’s was the best Irish result in this millennium, after we had dominated the contest in the latter years of the 20th century, winning a record seven times.

Sadly, in recent years, Ireland had found simply getting out of the semi-final an impossible task.

A Cork singer changed all that, so what did RTÉ and the great Irish public do this year? They opted for a singer that wasn’t just Not-Cork, but was Not-Ireland!

Which would be all very well if the entry by Norwegian singer and songwriter Emmy was a banger.

Alas, reader, I have to tell you that said song, Laika’s Party, is just not up to scratch.

It’s certainly weird........

© Evening Echo