What are your plans for Christmas and New Year?
We finish our Christmas tour in New York on December 22. I arrive home on Christmas Eve, just like Santa, but unlike Mr. Claus who only travels on one night in the year I go to Belfast on St. Stephen's Day to start a tour of concerts in Belfast, Dublin and Killarney.

Describe a typical working day?
It usually begins with interviews previewing up-coming concerts, then travel to the venue, then a sound-check with the orchestra followed by dinner at 5.30pm. The concert usually starts at 8pm, after which we meet the audience, sign autographs, take photos, smile at the prettiest girls, and travel to the next hotel and sleep.

What have you been up to in recent months?
We have literally toured the entire United States and parts of Canada. The highlight of the tour was, undoubtedly, the famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, where we performed with the LA Philharmonic.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?
Vancouver, Canada. The Magnificent harbour is always a hive of activity and you can taste the fresh clean air, which seems to fuel the relaxed and happy atmosphere in this fine city.

What is your favourite tipple and when was the last time you over indulged?
I am addicted to pineapple juice and I do not drink alcohol so there's no over indulgence.

If you were stranded on a desert island who is the one person you would want to have with you?
Bin Laden. The Americans are goin' to come get him. Aren't they?

Which actor/actress really floats your boat and why?
Currently Charlize Theron, because she reminds me of Juliette Bionche which reminds me of Chocolat, which is my all-time favourite movie.

If you were made Thaoiseach tomorrow what would be the first thing you would do?
Appoint Charlize Theron as Tanaiste.

Have you ever been in love?
Completely at the age of nine with a summer girl, frequently and unrequitedly as a priest, but ultimately elevated to the incurable adoring simpleton state since I met my lifetime-girl Angela.

When was the last time you cried?
Watching a movie called Blue Car on a long haul flight on November 26.

Can you tell us about your earliest childhood memory?
I can remember setting off as a toddler in search of the bathroom during my house-training phase but I got lost on what was for me a journey to a strange land, and like any troubled pilot, I lightened the load in the hallway.

Have you ever broken someone's heart?
Once or twice I think, but you never know with women - they are reputedly good at faking it!!

What's the one TV Programme you could not live without?
None, really, but Will and Grace is good.

Are you a good liar?
If you believed more than 50 per cent of what you have read so far, then Iam not doing badly, am I?

What's the one luxury in your life that you cannot do without?
My laptop, it is a belated umbilical cord to mama world and whatever she ate today.

Name three things you love about Ireland and three things you hate?
I love the notion, embedded in the national psyche that we are something special, a race apart. I love the diversity and excellence of musical ability. I love the story-telling in both verse and prose. I hate the road-works that started in 1916 and never finished. I hate the begrudgers who sit and wait. I hate the fact that Cork Airport cannot accommodate transatlantic flights.

What's the first thing you'd do if you won the Lotto?
Pay the guy who rigged the balls.

What would your dying words be?
Leaving the priesthood may not have been a good idea after all.