TWO RUNNERS-UP PLACES FOR MEATH MACRA IN TALENT FINAL IN THE HELIX

Wednesday, the 23^rd May - Athboy’s second place in Pop / Folk / Ballad Group and Kilcloon’s Claire Burke’s runner-up in Mastermind were the highlights of Meath Macra’s involvement in the National Final of the 2012 Macra National Talent Competition in The Helix Theatre, Dublin last Saturday night 19^th May. The competition, now in its 28^th year, comprises eight separate events namely Disco Dancing, Solo Instrumental Music, Novelty Act, Solo Singing, Mastermind, Set Dancing, Comedy and Pop / Folk / Ballad Group. There were four finalists in each event in The Helix Theatre and following the two national semi-finals, one of which was in Summerhill, Meath qualified for The Helix in five of the events.

Kilcloon Macra’s Anne Murphy from Colistown, Kilcloon was Meath’s first performer on stage when she appeared in Solo Singing. She gave a very fine rendition of the Adele song ‘Hometown Glory’ on which she accompanied herself on guitar but in an event of very high quality in which there was very little between the four finalists Anne lost out to winner Anne Marie Kavanagh from Clodagh, Co. Tipperary and runner-up Anabel Cordoba from Treble R, Co. Dublin. The other finalist was Emma Conroy of Camross, Co. Laois.

Moynalty were appearing in their first ever National Talent Final when they took the stage in the Novelty Act event. Their team of Michael Bennett, Matthew Brady, Sean Corrigan and Darren Dowdall  gave a fine performance of their sketch entitled ‘Airplane’ but again finished out of the top two in an event won by Cushinstown, Co. Wexford with Balyna / Carbury in second place. The other finalists were Donoughmore, Co. Cork.

Kilcloon’s second appearance of the night came courtesy of Pacetown girl Claire Burke who was appearing in the Mastermind section at the National Final for the third time, having been runner-up in 2010 and also in the Final the previous year. Claire’s specialist topic was Cinema and after the first 90 second speed round on specialist topics she was in the lead having scored a brilliant 16 points to lead by one point from John Dineen of Aghinagh, Co. Cork whose specialist topic was Current Affairs. However the eighteen year old Cork contestant scored another 15 points in the second speed round on general knowledge to give him a brilliant winning total of 30 points, six ahead of Claire Burke who got eight points in her second round to finish second on 24 points, an excellent score but just not good enough on a night when the young Corkman was in brilliant form. The other finalists were from Togher, Co. Louth and Clodagh, Co. Tipperary.

The Ardcath duo of Nicholas Coyle and Paddy Morris got plenty of laughs for their Comedy routine but finished out of the top two in an event won by a female duo from Berrings, Co. Cork with Emma Phelan from Camross, Co. Laois in second place. The other finalists were a duo from Balyna / Carbury, Co. Kildare.

Athboy have a great record in the Pop / Folk Ballad Group section over the years with six titles, a number of runners-up positions and other Final appearances also. They were reigning champions going in to this year’s Final and once again the group of Caoimhe Leavy, Claire Gough, Celine Smyth, Sarah Beirne, Jenny Faulkner and Aoife Mooney performed brilliantly and gave excellent renditions of their two songs ‘Heart Like a Wheel’ and ‘Catch a Falling Star’ but lost out narrowly to a very fine group from Berrings, Co. Cork. The other finalists were from Balyna / Carbury, Co. Kildare and Bree, Co. Wexford.

Meath’s many performers certainly did themselves, their clubs and their county proud in what was a great night’s entertainment. Claire Burke and the Athboy Ballad group were presented with engraved Dublin Crystal runners-up trophies by Macra President Alan Jagoe on stage at the end of the night.