Tonight on The Meaning of Life, veteran broadcaster, Gay Byrne, age 80, talks to Hozier, age 25, whose hit Take me to Church has made him a worldwide star. They talk life, religion and human rights and ‘that song’.
Hozier, born Andrew Hozier Byrne, hails from Wicklow. Half way through a music degree in Trinity College, he dropped out to concentrate on his first love, song writing. Working in his attic bedroom at home with his parents, he wrote Take Me to Church about his first love affair and his rejection of the Church associating shame with what should be one of the greatest joys in life: making love. The video he created for Take Me to Church focussed on the criminal attacks being made on the LGBT community in Russia. The song quickly went viral on YouTube and Hozier became a worldwide star.
The last two years have seen him travel the world to huge sell out audiences and the worldwide success of his first album.
Hozier has strong views on what should be the limits of the Catholic Church’s influence in matters sexual.
Hozier’s video raised awareness of oppression towards the LGBT community in Russia but also struck a chord with contemporary Irish youth who were so active in promoting the success of the recent referendum on Same Sex Marriage. Hozier believes that this issue is a matter of human rights, and not something over which the Church should seek to have an opinion.