Apple's wunderdevice the iPhone will be officially launched in Ireland on March 14. I say official as no doubt you too have seen plenty of these shiny tricorders everywhere already.

Exclusively available on the O2 network (unless you do a jailbreak), the iPhone is/will be available in an 8GB model for €399 and 16GB for €499. Monthly costs start at €45 and looking at the small print customers will be obliged to take out an 18-month contract. Full details are available from O2's website.

"The iPhone is changing the way people use their mobiles forever, and we're thrilled to offer it to O2 customers in Ireland. Our strategy in Ireland continues to be to bring our customers the very best innovations and experiences in mobile communications." - Danuta Gray (O2 Ireland's CEO)

I want one, but think I'll wait until the 3G version comes out.

So it's nearly been a week since Dustin the Turkey was awarded the honour of representing Ireland as this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade (or maybe somewhere else, depending on the situation).

As far as I'm concerned, Dustin's song and performance was completely self-aware, whereas the other 5 entries were (let's face it) rubbish. According to RTE, their judging panel included Charlie McGettigan, Eleanor McEvoy and Bill Hughes. Now, no one can accuse these people of being novices and whatever you may think about their own creative outputs (It's well known that I have a bit of a grá for Eleanor McEvoy anyway), you can be quite sure they could recognise a decent tune. However, from what I can gather, they only heard a shortlist of the submitted entries. So who decided what made the shortlist? I refuse to believe that of the 200 entries RTE claims it received, these 6 were the best. Which leads me to my next point ...

The 12 strong jury panel of Irish music media professionals deliberated at length tonight and chose the album as the finest Irish record released in 2007 from the shortlist of 10 records. A capacity crowd attended the event in Vicar Street, Dublin and were treated to performances by all 10 of the 10 shortlisted acts. The event was hosted by David "Rigsy" O'Reilly (from BBC N. Ireland) and Michelle Doherty (from Channel 6) and was broadcast live in a special broadcast on Today FM hosted by Tom Dunne.

The nominated albums were as follows (albums in alphabetical order):
Adrian Crowley "Long Distance Swimmer" (Tin Angel)
Cathy Davey "Tales Of Silversleeve" (EMI)
Delorentos "In Love With Detail" (Cottage)
Dry County "Unexpected Falls" (Lazybird)
The Flaws "Achieving Vagueness" (Arrivals)
David Geraghty "Kill Your Darlings" (Decal)
Kila "Gambler's Ballet" (Kila Records)
Roisin Murphy "Overpowered" (EMI)
Stanley Super 800 "Louder & Clearer" (Sofa)
Super Extra Bonus Party "Super Extra Bonus Party" (Alphabet Set)

The inaugural Choice Music Prize - Irish Album of the Year 2005 was won by Julie Feeney for her self-released 13 Songs debut. The Prize for 2006 was awarded to The Divine Comedy for his "Victory For The Comic Muse".

Here's a YouTube video of Glen Hansard & Marketa Irgolva's speech upon winning the 'Best Original Song' category at the Oscar's the other night. For me, this was the highlight of the whole show. As you'll see, after Hansard's honest and enthusiastic speech, Irglova is played off before she gets a chance to speak. However, thanks to protestations backstage (on the part of Colin Farrell I believe) host Jon Stewart invited her back to say her piece. Only gorgeous!

April 2008: Rob had Colm O'Snodaigh on the blower to talk about his new solo album "Giving." Colm was in London when the call took place and had just got clamped by a traffic warden - kudos for keeping the cool!

Download MP3 (12.3 MB)