Newcastlewest’s Bryan Mortell dances his way to victory

Bryan Mortell, winner of Youth Work Ireland’s talent show, Youth Factor.

Newcastlewest Youth Club’s Bryan Mortell danced his way to victory at the National Finals of Youth Work Ireland’s multi-disciplinary talent show, Youth Factor, held in Athlone on Sunday last, June 28^th.

Cheered on by a large and vocal following from the West Limerick town, Bryan stole the show with a traditional sean-nós dance that wowed the audience and judges respectively.

Presenting Bryan with his award one of the judges, Joe McCall, a former Eurovision Song Contest participant, congratulated Bryan on his success saying the Dance Category was ‘one of the most difficult to choose.’

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While there was delight for Bryan there was disappointment for two other Limerick acts with Killmallock band Chase and Foynes native Sarah Moynihan, St. Senan’s YC, missing out in the Band and Song Categories respectively.

Youth Work Ireland’s Youth Factor is an annual talent show where young people (U18s) take part in five categories-Band, Dance, Music, Performance and Song.  Participants competed in regional qualifiers with the winners progressing to the National Finals.

‘The standard at this year’s Youth Factor was very high and the young people should be extremely proud of their performance,’ said Limerick Youth Service’s Dermot Troy who congratulated Bryan on his success.

‘I know Chase (Aoife Barret, Georgina Donnegan and Emma Meehan) and Sarah were disappointed not to win but they, and all the participants, deserve great credit for taking to the stage in front of what was a packed house at the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone,’ added Mr. Troy.

Sunday’s talent show was the second part of what was a busy weekend in the midlands town as Saturday saw young people from across the country competed in Youth Work Ireland’s Youth Games.

Limerick was represented at the Youth Games by young people from St. John’s Youth Club, Irishtown Garda Youth Diversion Project and The Factory Southside Youth Space joined forces and took part in the Boys U15 Soccer tournament.

‘Unfortunately the bad summer for Limerick sport continued with the U15s following in the footsteps of the Senior Hurlers and Footballers and exciting the competition early,’ sighed Mr. Troy.

Reflecting on the weekend Mr. Troy thanked the young people, volunteers and the staff of Limerick Youth Service, Youth Work Ireland, the Dean Crown Theatre and Athlone Institute of Technology who made the weekend such a memorable one.

The Youth Games and Factor are part of Youth Work Ireland’s National Programmes which sees young people come together to participate, share new experiences and build self-confidence.

A member of Youth Work Ireland, Limerick Youth Service remains committed to supporting and encouraging young people to be active participants in shaping their futures.

For more on National Programmes please visit Youth Work Ireland’s website here. 

Check out Youth Work Ireland’s Facebook page here and follow them on Twitter here.