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DON CONROY HAS had a busy week.
As the country settles in to settling down for the foreseeable, the beloved artist best-known for his long-time stint on RTE’s The Den has just launched a YouTube channel.
It’s hardly surprising that when the veteran presenter broke the news he sent Irish Twitter into a spin as people in their 20s, 30s and 40s cheered amid the uncertainty of a global pandemic.
“It’s very encouraging,” says Conroy, speaking to TheJournal.ie from his home in Dublin.
The plan for a YouTube channel where Conroy will provide free drawing tutorials over the coming weeks came about by popular demand, he says.
“Over the years, a lot of people were saying that they took great pleasure from watching the Den which is always nice. And now they have children of their own and they want them to experience what they did when they were young,” says Conroy, who’s also an environmental activist and children’s author.
In his first YouTube tutorial, the silken-voiced Conroy takes us through how to draw a clown and, over the coming weeks, he plans to roll out classes for both children and adults as the country tries to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
“I think people are coping very well,” says Conroy, when asked how the country is holding up. “I think you know, that when the Irish are put up against it, I think they get very philosophical and put the best side up.”
Right now, says Conroy, people are being forced into a more reflective mode. What better time, therefore, to break out our pencils and calmly create?
“To look within, sometimes it’s quite challenging for people and now we’re being asked to drink from a deeper well,” he says.
“It’s about deciding what is our value in life? What’s our real value? And then we suddenly realise, you know, if we develop this kind of reflectiveness we realise how important people are placed and to step back from the madness,” says Conroy.
For years, ‘Uncle Don’ graced our screens on The Den where each week he’d teach the nation’s children to draw various animals.
His own favourite is still the Barn Owl, a creature that “has always held this great mystery to mankind,” he says.
“Mankind is kind of pretty hopeless in the dark, right? And here’s this creature that can see in the dark,” says Conroy, adding that the owl was held in high esteem in both Roman and Aboriginal cultures.
As parents across the country juggle both work and family from home, Conroy’s YouTube channel will come as a welcome respite with a much-needed dose of nostalgia.
He plans to start with one drawing tutorial each week but will gradually include workshops for adults as well as poetry classes.
“Anything that, I suppose, will elevate and encourage people to use their imagination and their creativity,” he says.
…
In 2013, Don Conroy surprised our colleagues by posting in a hand painted barn owl, complete with a lovely thank you message inside.
Thanks again, Uncle Don.
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The irony of it , this situation caused in a big part by the stances taken by the DUP over the past few years ie backing brexit not backing May & then backing Borris. Keep it up yer playing a stormer !!!!
@Tim Oconnell: I’d make one amendment to your comment. I’d say it’s been caused ‘in totality’ by those stances.
But how can the EU deal with Boris? , he’s not a serious politician and can’t be trusted to stick to any agreement.
We are supposed to view the English ‘House of Lords’ as impartial commentators? FFS.
@John Kinsella: I believe the majority in the House of Lords were very much against Brexit. Amazing as it sounds, I’d trust their opinion to be more honest than the current British Government.
@John Kinsella: they have actually been the most honest, thoughtful and forthright in dealing with the brexit issue, compared to the house of commons.. , suppose it helps when u don’t need to be elected, or have to suck up Doris…
Nothing will happen until the next British govt rejoins the customs union in a few decades time, or Ireland becomes united, whichever happens first.
A truly United Ireland is the only solution
@Tom McHale: unfortunately Unionists are not interested in exactly the same way that Irish people are not interested in joining UK.
The problem didn’t exist before brexit. Brexit caused the problem. They should have looked deeper into brexit before creating the problem rather than try to make it work by having to have the EU change rules of international trade, which will be a huge mountain to climb and could potentially cause ripples throughout the world in terms of trade agreements.
The EU and the UK negotiated and put in place the protocol. Input from the Irish Government was a fairly important aspect of its adaption. Any right minded person would now agree that the out-workings of this arrangement are injurious to the economoic and political stability of the North.
There needs to be a concerted effort now to put in place a set of remedies that make trade flows easier (within the UK) and get greater buy in on the political front. The EU is a beaucratic institution. It will find it very hard to to adapt a set of rules that can accomadate the complexity of the region but it must try.The UK goverment needs to work much harder to find a solution and in the interim stop its arrogant ranting about the agreement they signed a year and a half ago.
It really come down to the fact that Brexit means either a harder border on our Ireland or a weakening of ties between NI and mainland Britain. The EU rightly has to protect its border and we all know how porous the border here is. The DUP see Brexit as a way of rolling back the softening of the border since the GFA which has always been their agenda. The alternative is going to mean a slow but continued move towards a united Ireland. As this report says, there are now more opportunities for economic development in NI so why all the shouting? We have plenty of sausages he ‘re if they are short of a few up north!
I don’t think a lordship is in any way a guarantee of an educated being who understands critical thinking.
Tell me what PHDs the Lords have collectively and I’ll tell you if they can come to sensible and permanent solutions.
@Margaret Doyle: @Margaret Doyle: To an extent, The Lords are less swayed by the current political situation in the UK, they are not up for re-election so they are in a position to push back against the current government.
The main issue, as I would see it, is that the EU were never going to give the UK an easy ride of things to prevent others thinking they can drop out of the EU with no consequence, but the majority of the imposition that has been imposed on the UK has landed at NI’s doorstep.
There is a lot of hard feelings from NI as they didn’t want Brexit but seems to have shouldered the majority of the hardship. Would see their position as their own government has left them to it and the EU/Irish has imposed these hardships and the entrenched sectarianism causes loyalists to blame republicans and visa versa as proxies for the UK & Ireland.
Both sides need to sit down and take the ridiculous mantra of “NI cant be treated differently from the rest of the UK” off the table. There needs to be a solution found to make sure that NI are taking their share of the pain of Brexit but only their share not the majority
@Margaret Doyle: your post is more elitist than the house of lords
The House of Lords….an unelected body! Brexiteers don’t really understand how things work…..
Nothing new in that report.
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