Banagher To Cheltenham Via Youtube!
Mark Boylan
Mark Boylan, a 13 year old first year student at Banagher College Colaiste Na Sionna has had an incredable week following the completion of a song he wrote about the upcoming Cheltenham Festival. Mark who is a keen horse racing fan is also an accomplished singer and guitar player and has gathered huge attention with his own compostion ‘The Festival’.
Last March a record producer in the UK took him to The Cheltenham Festival as their guest after spotting his video on Youtube where he performed his version of a charity single ‘Cheltenham’ which had been released for the Injured Jockeys Fund. Building on his experience of his trip to Cheltenham, he decided to put pen to paper and wrote what he describes as ‘A passionate Cheltenham Anthem’.
He again used Youtube as the vehicle to display his talents and after one week, the song had been viewed over 3000 times and attracted huge attention from people within the Horse Racing Industry.
He has received numerous messages of support from some of racings top jockeys including Paul Townend, Aidan Coleman and last years Gold Cup winning rider Paddy Brennan. He was totally bowled over when the 15 times champion jockey Tony McCoy posted a comment on the networking site Twitter.
Mark Boylan
This years BBC Sports Person of the Year and Grand National winning jockey wrote ‘ I ain’t no Simon Cowell but how good is 13 year old Mark Boylans song about the Cheltenham Festival. ‘
Several national newspapers have been in contact with him and The two major Racing Papers have been covering his story. The Irish Field in last weekends edition outlined the story of ‘The Boy who is singing his way to Cheltenham’ while the Racing Post have taken things a step further by flying Mark to London last Monday to record his song in their Studios at Racing Post headquarters. They also shot a promotional video which they hope to use during the festival next week.
Things have really gathered momentum for Mark and on tuesday next 15th March, he has been invited by Channel 4 Television to appear as a guest of their hugely popular programme ‘The Morning Line’. The show which is broadcast live from Cheltenham during the festival previews the days action and provides an informative and entertaining insight into the Cheltenham festival. Mark will perform his song ‘The Festival’ on tuesdays programme which is the opening day of Cheltenham Races where the feature race is The Champion Hurdle.
Should you fail to tune in to Channel 4 next tuesday morning, Mark’s song ‘The Festival’ can be viewed on Youtube by entering ‘Mark Boylan Festival’ in the search but I don’t suppose it’s the last we will see of this young man from Banagher.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zanss5SjFOQ
