Pat Howley's TV Comment – I felt sorry for Jedward

I FELT sorry for Jedward on Saturday night as the votes rolled in and it became evident that the likeable lads from Lucan were about to fall far short of their great achievement in last year's contest. Twelve months ago they came in a very creditable eighth and I thought they had restored the Irish interest in Eurovision, only now I'm not so sure. First is first, second is nowhere and with this year's Waterline they had no hope at all. It's not much of a song and yet, with their positive and confident attitude, they looked good on the night, and never seemed to put a foot wrong in a dance routine that looked for all the world as if they were making it up as they were going along. That last jump into the fountain crowned all and made them look foolish, and very wet, but I was proud of them because of their determination to give the contest their best shot. One has to learn how to lose before knowing how to win and the 20-year-olds bottled their disappointment and didn't let Ireland down amongst the glitter and excess of the no-expense-spared Crystal Hall in Baku. Their pitch is unashamedly to gushing 15-year-olds and I've no idea how Jedward's voting flop went down in that company but this old guy was impressed by their grace and dignity in what is undoubtedly a career setback. They kept smiling through even though their hearts were breaking and what more could anyone expect from them faced with the reality of a paltry 46 points. I had a distinct feeling they were not going to do well because, in Eurovision terms, they are past it. Their novelty aspect of last year is gone and the last-minute (and misguided) decision to dump their trademark vertical hairstyles made them look conventional on Saturday night; sixties-style hair mops that I last remember seeing on the Monkees when I was still a believer. They got little help too from a routine that had little or nothing about it that was musical and it seemed at times as if the high jump in the upcoming London Olympics was their real objective. Their song wasn't all that bad but then the pre-contest favourite Euphoria, the runaway 372-point winner from Sweden, was nothing to go into raptures over either, and I didn't like it being shouted at me. I'm not deaf, Loreen, and if I remember this year's Eurovision for anything at all it will not be for the music but for the rumpus it stirred up over human rights issues in Azerbaijan. Even the United Kingdom entry Love will Set You Free wasn't such a poor song and 75-year-old Englebert Humperdinck deserved better from his performance than to sink to 12 points and second from the bottom above Norway. It was the hackneyed ring to the UK entry that was its downfall and it came complete with a clichéd key change that I've seen well described as creeping up on the listener with all the subtlety of a rhinoceros falling down a ladder. The Russian entry from the bevy of glamorous grandmothers and sounding to me like a traditional Russian folksong was top class entertainment and could have swung a welcome trip to Moscow for Marty Whelan next year. Called Party for Everyone, it was easy on the ear and despite the dodgy biscuits they served up was easily the best act of the evening. It will be the only one of all the different entries that will ever be heard again and the group known as Buranovskiye Babushki (Isn't a babushka a Russian grandmother?) were a breath of fresh air. They are reported as intending to donate their prize money to the construction of a temple when they get home to their native village of Buranovo in the Udmurtia Republic and there's a good question if I ever I saw one for this year's Leaving Cert Geography paper. Now that their Eurovision dream is over one wonders what next for the clean-living Grimes brothers? Are they a busted flush or have they got what it takes to put the painful Baku experience behind them and push on? I've never been convinced that they have the potential to make it big in the cut-throat music industry but this is their best chance of proving me wrong â€Â¢ â€Â¢ â€Â¢ THERE was a disappointment of sorts on Thursday night when, after all the debate and, in my case, a few trips to the National Gallery, the choice of the country's favourite masterpiece was Frederic William Burton's The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, and I was surprised. It was the only one of the original long list of 100 paintings and later whittled down to ten that I've never seen in reality. I somehow felt cheated that my choice didn't count in the long run because I knew little or nothing of the winner. The famous depiction of a covert meeting between doomed lovers is in the National Gallery but as a watercolour it has to be protected from light and is only available for viewing occasionally. Maybe it could be exhibited with the Turners and put on display in the dim light of January, and that would add greatly to the enjoyment of the annual New Year visit. My vote was for my all-time favourite, The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio and I couldn't see it being beaten. But obviously the romance attaching to the Burton story was the determining factor. President Michael D Higgins made the announcement on last Thursday night's The Works on RTE1 and from what he had to say in an interview with the presenter, John Kelly, I suspect his vote too was cast in the direction of the Caravaggio. But he was very knowledgeable on the Burton painting, describing it as an extraordinarily detailed and very beautiful picture. Frederic William Burton's masterful depiction of the story of Hellelil and Hildebrand garnered 22 per cent of the public vote and I thought it a chance missed when viewers were not also given the result of the voting for some of the other big vote catchers. Not just the Caravaggio but also, say, A Family by Louis Le Brocquy which is a difficult piece but it would have been interesting to see the effect, if any, of the recent passing of Le Brocquy on the voting. Sir Frederic William Burton RHA was born in 1816 in Corofin, Co Clare. Together with The Meeting on the Turret Stairs his other famous watercolour is The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child, and both are in the National Gallery. Michael Murphy was chairman of the selection panel for the series and he was especially knowledgeable on Burton on Thursday's show. As Mike tells it, the story of Hellelil and Hildebrand is based on a medieval Danish ballad which Burton would have known during his upbringing in Clare. It describes how the beautiful Hellelil falls in love with Prince Hildebrand, one of her twelve personal guards, but her father isn't amused and gives orders to his seven sons to kill Hildebrand. The meeting on the stairs seems to be a figment of Burton's imagination because, as the ballad tells it, the seven sons arrive at the door of a room in which Hellelil and Hildebrand are saying their fond goodbyes. Hildebrand jumps out waving his sword and kills six of the brothers. He'd have done for the seventh too but Hellelil begs him to spare her youngest brother, which he does, Hildebrand dies of his wounds at the scene and sometime later Hellelil passes away too, of a broken heart, presumably. In our own time, suitors have been known to pop the question in the National Gallery while standing before Burton's painting and, if the security could be arranged, is there a role as a catalyst for the Burton in Knock? For the RTE series, the painting was championed by singer Sharon Corr of the famous musical Corr family for that very reason. Her love of the painting goes back to the day the man who is now her husband took her to the National Gallery to see the painting on their very first date and, while she didn't say one way or the other about whether any popping occurred, the Burton obviously helped in sweeping Sharon off her feet. Burton never painted again and was appointed director of the National Gallery in London some time later. According to Mike Murphy, Burton enhanced his London appointment for ten years and for another ten years didn't enhance it. He died in London in 1900 and is buried in Dublin at Mount Jerome Cemetery. But he gave us our favourite painting and despite all the austerity of modern times, aren't we the dreamy romantics!