In his 2006 show 'Pedantic and Whimsical', Ed Byrne referred to the case of American rapper LL Cool J.
LL acquired the name LL Cool J at school, where it was an abbreviation of the phrase 'Ladies Love Cool James'. Byrne had difficulty processing the claim that LL could have received such a nickname at secondary school.
He concluded that LL had obviously attended one of those rare institutions where students were given the honour of choosing their own nickname.
In his Sunday Independent column yesterday, Joe Brolly alleged that Tyrone's Darren McCurry is responsible for originating his own nickname.
Like approximately 85% of people in the world who are called Darren, McCurry goes by the nickname 'The Dazzler'.
Brolly told his readers that McCurry had bequeathed this name on himself and that he regularly referred to himself by that name.
Brolly knows the law on this matter. And he is evidently confident that he has not opened himself up to a libel claim by writing this down in a newspaper.
He then listed the small number of people in the world, who by virtue of their gravitas and pre-eminence, have acquired the right to choose their own nickname.
There are only three.
These are Floyd Mayweather, whoever happens to be the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, and the Tyrone country and western singer Hugo Duncan.
There are only a handful of people in the world who are entitled to talk about themselves in the third person. These are Floyd Mayweather, Tyrone country and western singer Hugo Duncan, and the reigning heavyweight champion of the world. I bumped into Hugo once at a wake...
I said to Hugo, 'How are you?'
'Hugo's doing great Joe, he's absolutely flying'
'I thought you were Hugo,' he said.
He looked at me puzzled and said, 'I am'.
We are all the richer for having read the contents of that unforgettable exchange between Joe Brolly and Hugo Duncan at that wake.
As an aside, it ranks alongside the time that he recalled the story of the Cavan man who belted out the national anthem as a prelude to sex.
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