Talk:My Lovely Horse

I contest that this should stay because it has a significant cult following on the internet. It passes the Google test, and also appears outside of the Television Show in other works by Neil Hannon. Andre the Giant 17:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

It does have a significant number of hits in Google. But you can't put the entire text of the poem in Wikipedia; that's the entire work, not an excerpt, so it's not fair use. --John Nagle 17:43, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

The "Gin Soaked Boy" single credits it as a Linehan/Hannon composition. Presumably the words are by Linehan and the music by Hannon. --Bonalaw 12:09, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Should we perhaps include a link to this real Eurovision song?:-) Wohin,_Kleines_Pony?--Dub8lad1 09:03, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

What is this reference to a "father Portmuna"? I can't find anything out about that. CTurner, 11 May, 2011 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.226.146.65 (talk) 15:57, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Life, well Eurovision, imitates art

From The Scotsman 2003 <a href="http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=853&id=317572003"> </a>

IT IS a strange case of life imitating art, or rather Father Ted. Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entry is being investigated over allegations of plagiarism.

The organisers of the event have launched an inquiry into claims that Ireland’s proposed entry - ‘We’ve Got the World’, sung by Mickey Joe Harte - sounds suspiciously similar to the winning Danish entry in 2000, ‘Fly on the Wings of Love’.

The fiasco echoes the plot of an episode of the television comedy series Father Ted, in which the hapless priest from Craggy Island ‘borrows’ a previous Norwegian Eurovision entry to compete in the contest.

The news has been greeted with predictable dismay by the Irish branch of the Eurovision body. Yesterday, one member of the committee said: "It’s a bloody farce, how did we get into this situation?"

Commenting on the accusation of plagiarism, Harte, 29, insisted he "honestly couldn’t see the similarity", but added that the first line of the chorus could be said to resemble the Danish entry.

Eurovision organisers have convened a special meeting this Thursday at which both songs will be played to a panel of experts. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which co-ordinates the song contest for the member states, has also ordered that Ireland submit a back-up song to the Eurovision entry committee in Riga, Latvia, where the contest is to be held in May.

This year, for the first time, the Irish entry was chosen by a public phone-in vote. The final heat, last Sunday, at which ‘We’ve Got the World’ was chosen, attracted one of the biggest ever television audiences in Ireland.

But no sooner had the winner been chosen, than the national television channel, RTE, was inundated with telephone calls and emails pointing out the similarities between the two songs.

A spokeswoman for the EBU also confirmed that it had received a number of complaints.

She said: "We have received complaints in regard to plagiarism involving the Irish entry. They are being taken note of and the matter will be scrutinised by a special committee for the contest next Thursday." Keith Molloy, who wrote the song for Harte, denies having lifted the melody, insisting it is entirely original.

He said: "The only similarity between them is that they’re both three minutes long and they’re both in the same key. Otherwise I don’t know what all the hullabaloo is about."

A spokeswoman for RTE added: "It doesn’t come a quarter close to plagiarism. Once the EBU hear the song they’ll realise that."

She added there was "no question" that the song would be scrapped and replaced with ‘A Better Plan’ sung by the runner-up in the competition, Simon Casey, and written by Bryan McFadden of Westlife.

Harte, from county Tyrone, had revealed during the contest that his father, Jimbo, was suffering from a life-threatening respiratory disease. He said hoped to survive long enough to see his son represent Ireland in the competition.

Harte has the backing of Jorgen Olsen, who performed and wrote ‘Fly On The Wings of Love’. Although the Danish singer songwriter said there were similarities between the two songs he added that he did not believe his had been plagiarised.

Olsen said: "The tempo and the arrangement and the build up is sort of the same way we did it, but there’s no way I’ll do any legal action to that."

I'll try and get back and edit this into the article in much reduced form. I've posted here in case the reference gets deleted from the web page of the Scotsman.

Tim O'Leary 17:01, 14 May 2007 (UTC)