 This is Around the Northwest, now the final of Dancing with the Stars is on Sunday evening on RT1 and there's great local interest because there's Brooks Kellyan, there's also Damian McGinty. In fact I think there's another contestant that has a dairy connection but anyhow we've got Damian on the line now and we want to wish that Damian the best and find out a little bit about what the journey's been like so we're streaming as well. Damian, good afternoon to you. Hello, how's things? Yeah, good, good. Things are great with you. I mean, did you fancy it at the start when you upstix and moved over here and you know we're in for as long as it took that here you would be in the final? I'll be honest, I couldn't have fancied anything less. That's the truth. I mean I've got to be honest, starting off this opportunity and this project, I didn't really have expectations coming on it and that was part of the reason that I was like I actually fancy doing this is because it was so unknown and it was so scary and frightening that it just really appealed to me at this point in my life, at this point in my career. I was just like do you know what, that's sort of fancy. A challenge. Yeah, I fancy a new challenge. That was sort of something that was really attractive to me and then I think I started off, my main target was to just not go home first. I was just like I don't want to go home week one. I'm curious how far I can take me on this. Okay, okay, well that's understandable but I think from looking at it casually, you've actually improved and you've sort of warmed into the role. Would you call yourself a dancer at this stage? It's a very loose term. I mean, what I would say is that now moving forward is if I seem like if my agent presented me with an opportunity now that said this role requires competent dancing, I would view it very differently now and I would say for the first time ever in my life, I would say, yep, I can do that. I can do that. People who would have known you from Glee and Celtic Thunder and so on would probably have thought, well, you know what, there's going to be plenty of dancing in him. He's an entertainer, not necessarily the case. I mean, you know, you hadn't had much dancing experience up to that point. Yeah, I mean, I think to be honest, it's very, very important to know the difference between like dancing as a member of Celtic Thunder, you know, that's very kind of sample performance choreography. Dancing on Glee was a lot more difficult, but at the same time, you were part of a group of 15 main cast members and you recorded the dance numbers 50 times and then you edit it. And they might have got, you know, an ankle movement from me and the final edit, you know, like that's the reality of it. Whereas this, this is like we're talking honing in on technicalities and doing a live performance of, for example, my semi final was a rumba and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Like the attention to detail required was that that you would expect of someone that would be studying this for 10 years, not not 11 weeks, you know, because there's there's nowhere to hide. You've got to go out and perform it and do it live. So there's there's nowhere to hide. There's no they'll sort that out in the editing. No, there's that. I mean, that's that's that you've gotten a minute and a half. You've got a live opportunity and, you know, anything can happen when it's live as we've seen on the show over the last three months. And as you see in any sort of live environment, truly anything can happen. So that makes this all more terrifying because, you know, none of us the sound of the show are competent enough to feel confident that no matter what, nothing goes wrong in the live show, you know. Two women to talk about. First of all, you're a partner in this OK, Lee, because I don't think you would have got as far if if it didn't click with the two of you and get on really well together. And then that in turn leads to dancing together, dancing well together. 100 percent. Like this is this is a team effort. You know, it's an absolute team effort. I, you know, I'm very aware that this, you know, the the celebrities and the vertical is I'm very aware that the celebrities get the leading name for it. And, you know, that their name would take the credit. But like, that's not the way it is, you know, myself and Kelly have been a team. It's been a fussy, fussy effort that I couldn't do without her and vice versa. I mean, I would argue I've needed her more, to be honest. Like I really, really have leaned on her very hard because she's unbelievable. Her choreography is sensational. She's such a talent. I got very lucky getting paired with her. So like, yeah, it is. It's very much so a team effort. And that kind of I like working part of a team, too. That's always something that I've really enjoyed is is is striving to get somewhere together as part of a team. I think is way more enjoyable than individual. Dairy is very strong in this because we have Brooks Gullion in the final as well. A lot of people saying it's going to be between you and Brooke. And I suppose, in a way, it's been great to have, you know, sort of a fellow townie in there with you. Lock it, Haas. And Brooke is I mean, first of all, if we're being totally transparent, everybody knows naturally, Brooke is the best answer. There's there's just there's just no question about it. And that's not me being like being humble or self-deprecated. And that's like, no, like, Brooks is naturally she came in a week one and she blew everybody's socks off. Everybody's just like, that's unreal. So like, but I think I think what it is in a show like this is it's not necessarily the dancing. Sometimes it's it's the journey and where you've come from from day one and everybody's journey looks different and people enjoy different journeys. And, you know, Brooke's been unreal. She's become a really, really good friend. I'm very I'm actually very fond of her. And, you know, she's not young, but she would be seven or eight years younger than me and I sort of feel the need to just keep keep a slight eye on her and just like make sure that she's doing OK. And we've always had good, long talks at the weekends if she's ever struggling and vice versa. So there's a really good friendship for him in there. Good. That's good to hear. It's been quite a journey for you. And it's been, I suppose, in a way a big ask for you because you you've had to move over from the states for whatever it's been now for the last few months with rehearsals and then the live shows. So it's been a fair bit of a people. It has been a lot of people, you know, that was, you know, the way this presented itself was I was here in October and we were working on a new Celtic Sunday record and one of the producers seen that I was in Dublin and I've had conversations with the shows previously, but it just never quite felt right. But this time the producer reached out to me and for whatever reason, it just sort of happened at the right time. And then it ended up the end of last year actually ended up being very stressful because I was in my own new album cycle and I was in a tour cycle. So in December and November, I had to do four transatlantic trips between a 45 city American tour and that was bedlam like I've never experienced in my life. And then I finally did the last trip and we got here in New Year's Eve and then me and Kelly have just been working ever since. But I mean, yeah, I had to have conversations, obviously with my wife. You know, I got married for nearly married four years. And now my career just looks a wee bit different now where you can't make decisions solely based off of what you fancy or what you're sort of feeling in the moment. It's like, no, I've got a family now. I have to have conversations because it affects more than just me, you know. Have you had much chance to get up home? I know you were up with it a couple of weeks ago and you did did a bit of a tour of your former schools and stuff. So I'm sure that was good. Oh, it was great, Craig. I have to say it was to be honest, it took it took me by surprise because like we are in the show and you're kind of in a bubble where you're either in the studio or you're on the rehearsal space and you don't really like I haven't had a social life at all. I mean, the only time I got to Derry was last week to go up to the schools and I just couldn't believe the support. I couldn't believe it was a reminder of like, I know the ratings are huge for the show this year anyway, but it was just a reminder of people are actually watching the show like kind of the whole country is kind of tuned in the minute. And we don't really see that because when you're there outside the TV screen, it's just like this is normal life and you don't see anything you don't see the people watching. You know, so the support from Derry was phenomenal and really, really humbling. A lot of rehearsing. I mean, you know, you just can't go out and do that in a Sunday night without putting in the work during the week. No, especially if you've seen me in a Monday morning compared to what Sunday night looks like. I mean, we I just just the way it is for me. I've had I would say on average, I've had to put on about thirty five hours a week. I would say that's probably a decent number. You know, that's like just been a full-time dancer. Well, we wish you what beyond this now because, you know, this is coming to an end, you know, whatever the result is, it's coming to an end on Sunday. So what now beyond this for you? Is there is there more Celtic thunder or what's what's in the in the planning? So in the summer, I've got I've got a tour of my own lined up, which is going to be North America. And we're looking at we're looking at European dates and things like that because I've always now been interested as a sort of, you know, just start my thirties. I want to start transferring workload to Ireland. So that's been a that was sort of, you know, part of the decision making process behind dancing with stars as well. And then in the second half of the year, we've got a new Celtics on the record and a big tour of North America for us. And then, to be honest, the way it's kind of going at the minute is there's a lot of, you know, my agents and kind of management team and stuff like that are having a lot of conversations about different opportunities that are kind of coming through the pipeline or people that are interested in having general meetings and all this stuff. So like part of this career is just kind of navigating through it sometimes. And you never know what's fully what's ahead three months in advance. Like I didn't know in October that the first quarter of my year would be spent doing this. I had no idea. So that's kind of the nature of it as well, you know, which is enjoyable, but also you lie in bed at night as a self-employed person, being like, I would like to turn my brain off, but I can't. No. And I suppose, yeah, you can't, you know, you can't determine what's going to happen in a few months time or maybe even a few weeks time. And you have to be you have to be flexible and you have to go with it. And maybe you'll have to go with having one dancing with the stars after Sunday. So the the best look I would that would be on really take this opportunity now to remind people, the tech, what's the text Damian is it? All right, you just you text Damian the five three one two five. And then there's a there's two full numbers as well from the south and from the north if you want to ring in and which transparently I have no idea who rings in and votes these days on TV shows. But I think texting is probably the way to go. Well, listen, the best, the best listen look on Sunday will be tuning in and giving our fingers and anything else across for you. And hope that it all goes. Hope all the hard work actually pays off when you put in a good performance. And after that, then churches. Progress cross. I appreciate it. Hey, hey, cheers, thanks. Around the Northwest with Doney.