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In a recent article in the Irish Times, Killarney Advertiser columnist Anne Lucey highlighted the ongoing issue of Killarney’s street entertainers and the council’s plans to regulate buskers in the town.

Some councillors have complained that members of the public are being insulted and foul language is being used by certain performers, and concerns have also been raised about the quality of some of the music being played on our streets.

To my mind the councillors are only talking about a couple of people here, the main alleged culprit being Eric “Scotty” Gudmunsen, aka the Donald Trump guy. The Dundee native wears a Trump wig and sings parody songs about the US president, such as ‘Please Impeach Me’ (to the tune of Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘Please Release Me’) and a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’ that goes:

“I flip and flop,

When my lips move it means I’m lying and I just can’t seem to stop,

Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie…”

There’s one or two swear words and a bit of innuendo in his lyrics but not a whole pile; nothing you wouldn’t hear on national daytime radio in this day and age.

Certain councillors, however, say he’s “lowering the tone” by insulting passers-by. I think he’s gas enough to be honest. I was walking past him on Main Street the other day with a couple of friends, one of whom was wearing shorts. “Oh, you’ve put me off chicken for life,” Gudmunsen said. There was a big crowd there and it got a laugh. My friend got all embarrassed. It was great.

All jokes aside, it is a public space so people should have the option of not being insulted if they don’t want to be. It might be fair enough if you pay to go to a show but not everyone is going to appreciate having the piss taken out of them as they go about their daily business.

When it comes to quality, I don’t think you couldn’t really question Gudmunsen. His lyrics are sharp and witty and he regularly draws large audiences so he’s obviously doing something right. There are others who maybe aren’t as talented and busker auditions, which are commonplace in major cities, might be a good idea. You don’t want to be too harsh or rain on anyone’s parade but if tourists are being put off and locals are being irritated, you have to take that into account.

The one major complaint I would have about the street performers in Killarney is the repetitive nature of the material. The problem here isn’t the material itself per se; you can’t expect buskers to play different songs all the time and they’re naturally going to sing their best ones more often than not.

It’s just that Killarney is so small, it’s nearly impossible to not hear them every single time you go to town. That does get a bit annoying, and I’m only passing through. It must get very irritating for the people working in the town centre who have to listen to the same songs day in, day out.

According to the outgoing Mayor, the exact same issue was raised 12 months ago so it’s disappointing that this issue is being discussed now at the height of the tourist season. As far as I can tell, the council are talking about the same buskers who were here last year. If there really is a problem then it should have been sorted during the off-season.

In the meantime, Killarney’s Donald Trump is unlikely to get impeached any time soon and it seems as though we’ll be hearing his lie, lie, lies for the rest of the summer at least.

What do you think of the standard of busking in Killarney? Does something need to change? Let us know by emailing newsdesk@killarneyadvertiser.ie.