A well-deserved Oscar for Ireland

After the embarrassing result of Eurosong 2008 on Saturday night, some might have given up on contemporary Irish music already. But despite the Dustin joke that will backfire on us and haunt Ireland for years, there is still hope for the friends of real music on the Emerald Isle.

As I had hoped - and predicted - the beautiful song "Falling Slowly" from the Irish low-budget film once has won the Oscar for Best original Song in Los Angeles last night. Congratulations are due to the singers and musicians Glen Hansard (of the Irish rock band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová, who are also the stars of the musical film. This is a very well-deserved award for two young people who worked hard and made their dream come true.

And once again this success shows that one does not need to have many millions of dollars and a whole string of overpaid Hollywood stars to produce a good - and popular - film. If our film makers in Ireland take a little lesson from once, there might be more sensible films made in this country.
It would certainly help if the Tanaiste, as Minister for Finance, would look kindly on the Irish film industry and give them some more tax breaks, as they are available in many other countries.

The Emerald Islander