A few months ago while splodged on my sofa watching Graham Norton on a Friday night I saw this short YouTube video made by a group of students in Kerry.
So, since I had mentored some of these students in the past I perked up to watch. They had dubbed a scene from Pulp Fiction in a Kerry accent and renamed it “Pulp Fiction Kerry Shtyle”. Quentin Tarantino was a guest that night on the show and loved the clip! So the madness began. Thousands of hits overnight…media frenzy at the IT in Tralee where Mary Lucey – head of Creative media department was inundated with requests to meet the students and get a piece of them.
When I turned up to Tralee IT yesterday to see the great Graham I couldn’t have anticipated the scenes up there. The IT decided to honour the students who made a splash online with their work, with an award presented by non other than Graham Norton! They asked and he said yes. He is known for his rejection of any invites to public appearances in general, so it was certainly a coup by Mary and her staff to get him. He arrived in his Hybrid car, grabbed a Costa in the student café (which is fab coffee by the way-well worth the walk out of town for a cappuccino!) and marched into a room full of 300 or so very excited students, staff and press. The local artist Rebecca Wall introduced herself and thanked everyone for the opportunity to make an award to such a unique occasion. Graham chatted with the room, answered questions and entertained us all in true gentlemanly style. He gave generously of his time and before we knew it he was off on a tour of the facilities in the Institute.
I never saw so many ‘selfies’ being taken in all my life! At least 30 times he was stopped him to get a ‘selfie’ on a phone. So twitter & Facebook were alight I’m sure…As for YouTube…I’m certain the whole afternoon is represented well there too. He chatted and laughed with everyone as he made his way back to his car – thankfully I got to shake his hand and say I was a fan. My job was done! Here are some photos of the day…
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