Irvinestown's local celebrity Joe Mahon has been on the road recently, bringing his famous (or infamous) rendition of 'Doggy in the Window' and other "greatest hits" on tour across the UK.

In a van emblazoned with the sign 'Joe Mahon On Tour' and with 15 "hit" songs in his repertoire, Joe travelled to Manchester to begin his tour.

Explaining why he chose to kick off the tour in Manchester, Joe said: "My son is moving back from England and he'd just got married last year in Portugal. We were to go to his stag party in Bratislava but then with the snow there last year we couldn't get away. So we got as far as Manchester and we stayed there."

He continued: "So we had the stag party in Manchester and went to this pub in Stockport called Cassidy's. The man who runs it is originally from the town here (Irvinestown) and we went in and sang there that night and the place was packed."

Following Joe's first spontaneous performance in Cassidy's, the owner told him that he would have to sing in the pub again when he was next back in Manchester. Joe said: "So when my son said he was coming back home from Manchester he had to bring a van over, so I rang him and I rang a couple of other pubs to say I was coming over so they fitted me in then and I did this tour of a few different of pubs."

Asking Joe what venues he toured, he said: "We went to Cassidy's Bar in Stockport, we did it on the Wednesday night, then we went on up to Ulverston in Cumbria, my other son lives in Cumbria, so I was there one night up in the Farmer’s Inn."

He added: "The two nights were packed out, they were sold out."

Talking about his "greatest hits" which he performed whilst on tour, Joe said: "I record a different song every year for Marie Curie so I've built up now 15 songs so I do all the 15 songs on the night. The 'Doggy in the Window' is one of the most popular songs, but then the 'Rooster' song, it was one of the first songs I ever started off singing and it goes down very well because of all the different characters in the bar have to get up and do the different animals."

When asked if any of his "greatest hits" have gone platinum, Joe said: "One of the songs has 38,000 hits on YouTube, it's called 'The Legend Joe Mahon.'"

"Well it's a song about me, it's not me singing it. A fella wrote it about me," he added.

Commenting that the audiences' response to his singing was "very good," Joe added: "Cassidy’s especially because there's a lot of people from Irvinestown, they all came in that night. The McBride’s and all them. They live over there now and they came in on the night. It was packed out like."

Talking about his new found fame across the water, Joe commented: "I had to sign autographs and all. Had to get photographs taken and selfies. The whole lot."

Asking Joe if he would take his "greatest hits" on tour again, he said: "Oh aye, I enjoyed it the last time and it was the first time I've done something like that. I've been in Belfast a couple of nights, I've sang in the Hatfield, places like that, and they've asked me back up there as well."

He added: "I wouldn't mind going to Las Vegas now, all the big stars have made it in Las Vegas and I'm sure I could make it out there too."

Even on the road Joe had fans showing their appreciation. He explained: "We had the van all painted up with 'Joe Mahon on Tour' and then when I went over on the boat, because I do the lorry convoy, a lot of the people know me."

He continued: "Lorries were blowing the horn at us as we were going up the motorway when they seen the sign on the side of the van saying ‘Joe Mahon on Tour.’"

He added: "Even on the Stena boat, all the lorries were blowing the horn at us. The amount of lorries blowing the horn at us was unbelievable like."

Giving the fans what they wanted, Joe explained that on the way back on the ferry he "sang a wee song to the lorry men" in the lorry lounge.

After his special performance singing on the ferry, we asked Joe if he would ever consider singing on cruise ships. “Aye," he said smiling. "The world’s my oyster now.”

Renowned for his droll sense of humour, it is difficult to discern whilst interviewing Joe Mahon if anything he has said is true. However, one thing is certain, he has a strong fanbase whether he can sing or not - the 38,000 views on YouTube for the song 'The Legend Joe Mahon' is a testament to that.