HIS REAL NAME is in fact Richy Sheehy, not Kevin Murphy, but he may indeed be Cork’s biggest Liverpool fan.
When Sheehy uploaded a satirical Liverpool-themed song to YouTube and posted it on the Premier League club’s forum on Reddit on Tuesday night, little did he realise that the catchy number would bring him worldwide attention.
After waking up on Wednesday morning, the comedian from Carrignavar in Cork was inundated with social media messages. His unique take on The Archies’ 1969 hit ‘Sugar Sugar’, dedicated to Liverpool’s attacking trio, had gone viral.
The idea for the song came about after Philippe Coutinho’s transfer to Barcelona was confirmed, leaving Liverpool’s ‘Fab Four’ a man down. According to Sheehy — or ‘Kevin Murphy, Cork’s biggest Liverpool fan’ as he refers to himself in the video — there’s still cause for optimism at Anfield thanks to Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
After over three million views in approximately 36 hours, the message has been delivered loud and clear. The video has been shared by the likes of former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, while Sheehy was interviewed live on BBC Radio One this afternoon.
“It’s ludicrous. The reaction has been crazy,” he told The42 today, explaining that ‘Kevin Murphy’ is a character he’s due to play in an upcoming parody music video.
“I just kind of came up with the song so I thought it might be funny to put up a video of me doing it in that character. But I obviously didn’t expect it to take off like this. It’s hard to keep count because it’s been uploaded to so many different platforms but a couple of hours ago the video had over three million views.”
He adds: “I’m a big Liverpool fan so it obviously stems from that. It’s just a bit of fun, exactly. But the way Salah is playing, losing Coutinho hopefully won’t matter.”
Sheehy, who has previously performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, did earn a measure of online notoriety in 2016 when he uploaded a song which tied in with Conor McGregor’s phoney retirement, but he certainly hasn’t received this much attention before.
Seemingly, the recipe for a viral victory is a catchy tune, some simple lyrics, a camera and a tub of oregano.
In the video, he encourages Liverpool supporters to belt out his ode to Jurgen Klopp’s side on Sunday for the visit of Premier League leaders Manchester City. Given the extent to which the video has been circulated, stranger things have happened.
“Hopefully,” Sheehy says. “It’s gotten to the stage now where I’d imagine a lot of the people going to the game will have heard the song. As long as we don’t concede early and maybe if Salah scores the winner, we might hear it then.”
If you’re interested in finding out more about ‘Cork’s biggest Liverpool fan’, he’s got a website which you can view by clicking here.
