A LEITRIM schoolboy has become the star of Ireland’s most watched television programme of the year.
A country music medley with friends and a heartfelt chat about his pet lamb have thrust eight year-old wannabe farmer Darragh Malone into the national spotlight.
Selected from thousands of young performers vying for a slot on RTE’s The Late Late Toy Show, which
showcases the most coveted Santa presents of the season before audiences of over 1.5 million, Darragh’s impromptu chat with host Ryan Tubridy about the fate of his pet lamb Tara has gone viral.
The P4 pupil, from St Matthew’s Primary School, Magheramayo, stole viewers’ hearts when, clad in a green boiler suit and testing a field game made in the west of Ireland, he told Tubridy about his friendship with Tara, which abruptly ended when his dad took her to the “factory”.
When pressed on her whereabouts, Darragh eventually pointed to the sky before innocently blanking his interviewer’s question about whether or not he enjoys Sunday dinners.
Darragh’s mum Teresa, who was in the green room with her husband Martin during the show, admits she was nervous about how her little boy might fare being questioned under the glare of studio lights.
With just a 10-minute run through earlier in the day, she said she quickly realised the conversation on-stage was “completely off the cuff”.
“That was just him, there was no acting or anything,” she said.
“The chat with Ryan Tubridy earlier in the day was totally different to the conversation on the live show but we knew that was how it can happen. We wondered what he might say next, and I was nervous he might get brain freeze, but he did really well.”
After his endearing chat, Darragh, his 11 year-old brother Ryan and their friend, seven year-old Micheal Murphy took to the stage in their toy tractors to perform country music favourites Hit the Diff, Wagon Wheel and Tommy K and the DJ.
While they were still on stage, Teresa heard her phone ping in her bag as social media went alive with comments about the show. She had 200 messages within minutes.
She said the boys, who attracted 33,000 likes on Facebook when they originally performed the medley for a fundraiser for Aughlisnafin Gaelic Club last year, have now attracted almost 0.75 million viewers for their clip.
She said she had no idea, when she quietly sent their video off to the Late Late Show producers, how things would turn out.
“Martin was the only person who knew that I had sent it off as I didn’t want to raise the boys’ hopes. We watch the Late Late Toy Show every year as a family and love it,” she said.
“I know they get thousands of entries so I didn’t even expect them to open our video, but when the word came through that they had even reached the auditions they were hyper.”
While Darragh’s performance continues to grab online attention, his mum said he remains blissfully unaware of the stir he has created.
“He is getting ready for his school Christmas play and has no idea how huge it has become,” she said.
“One of the Facebook messages made me very proud; it was somebody saying, ‘Please bottle this child and sell him’.”