Sensational Galbally singer wins Glór Tíre

Taking to Facebook to congratulate his protégé following her win, Tyrone country star Barry Kirwan said: “A massive congratulations to my Glór Tíre contestant Lauren McCrory on winning the final of the show last night.

“It was a pleasure to be in Galway to see her being crowned the winner and I am so proud of her achievement.”

Thanking all of her supporters after the final on April 11, the 20-year-old said that while she was delighted to win, the support she got “was even better”.

Lauren told the Times: “I cannot believe it, I am still trying to take it all in.

“It’s so surreal, but I am obviously delighted.”

Talking about what the win means to her, she went on: “The publicity and the exposure was mainly the thing that I wanted, the show has about 200,000 people watching it each week.

“I knew that just being on it was going to get my name out.”

But she said the financial gain will also enable her to record singles, as she couldn’t get finance to do that before the show.

“Now that I have actually won, I will be able to do that,” she added.

“I can’t really waste the opportunity. It was a great lift to furthering my career.”

Watching the show for years, she said: “I wanted to tick it off my bucket list. “To get to the final I was completely shocked. The support has been overwhelming, and I genuinely mean that... winning the competition was fab, but the support I got was even better.”