Eoin Butlertalks to FEARGAL HYNES Hurler, arts promoter and student
How old are you, first of all, Feargal?I'm 17. I'm in fifth year at St Peter's College in Wexford.
Should you be in school right now?Yeah, but that's no problem. Honestly.
I bet it isn't. You owe me one so. How did you get your break as an arts promoter?In Transition Year, two friends – Glen Murphy and Conor Tobin – and I contacted Des Bishop about coming to Wexford for a show. After a lot of hard work, he agreed. It was the first time there had been comedy in the Wexford Opera House and it sold out. He'd never sold that many tickets in Wexford before.
You've been keeping pretty busy since then.Right now, I'm handling an art gallery called Greenacres. It's a food and wine shop, but there's a fabulous gallery on the first floor. We've had a very broad mix of jazz events, classical recitals and things like that. I've also done promotional consultancy for other people and I'm in discussions about other upcoming comedy events in Wexford.
Your family background, of course, is steeped in the arts. You must benefit from an enormous amount of goodwill.My father would have been my biggest inspiration. The new Wexford Opera House was a big dream of his. And we were always taught to follow our dreams, that if we wanted something badly enough, it would work out for us. I've had great support, too, from my mother Alma and my aunt Garry and other family members, so that's a huge asset.
Your late father, Jerome Hynes, was hugely respected and admired by a lot people.Absolutely, he seemed to leave a very positive impression wherever he went, whether it was even just a phone call or whatever. And that would work a lot in my favour. That's how I'd like to operate myself, to leave behind the same positive impact that he did.
What have you planned for the Wexford Festival Opera?I've got two late-night shows coming up in Greenacres. The first is a guy called Rusty McCarthy from Canada, who worked with Glen Hansard and the Swell Season. The second is Cormac Kenevey, a jazz musician. There will also be what we call "Postcard" events, a sort of musical snapshot. There will be Postcards from Italy, with songs and arias and Postcards from Prague . . . So the place will be buzzing 24/7.
As a promoter, is it easy to gauge whether an artist will draw a crowd, or is it ever a gamble?You use foresight as much as possible. An asset I have is that I'm able to listen to people. That's really important. The Des Bishop audience would have been my own audience, so I had an advantage there. But with the classical recitals, I've had to talk to a lot more people and take a lot more advice. If you're the only person who's going to enjoy something, that's no good. At the end of the day though, it is largely a gamble. So you have to go with your gut feeling, and put your heart into whatever project you take on.
You're also an accomplished hurler.I play hurling for Wexford. We won All-Ireland titles at U-14 and U-16 level. I was on the minor panel this year under Martin Storey and I'm still underage next year. So we hope to achieve a lot, because it's a great bunch of players. I'm really proud to be involved.
I talked to Stephen Nolan from the senior team and he also works as a dating coach – you're clearly a multifaceted bunch.There's a lot goes on here all right.
How does the buzz of putting on a show compare to the buzz of winning an All-Ireland?They might be thought of as very different things, but I think they have a lot in common. The first thing that you have to do is work well with other people. I get a buzz from winning, but also from working with other people, so that ties into both. Besides, the buzz you get from achievement, from seeing hard work pay off, is the same.
It must be tough to balance all of this on top of your school work.At the moment, I'm managing to keep the three things going with a lot of help from the teachers and staff in the school. I'm lucky in that my teachers are top class and they facilitate me 100 per cent. Some people might think it's total madness, but I feed off the energy and I really enjoy everything I do.
The Wexford Festival Opera is on from October 21st-November 1st. www.wexfordopera.com
