#3 Scór na nÓg 2025

I play Gaelic football and belong to CLG Naomh Pol (St Paul's GAA) which is based in Holywood, County Down. As well as playing football and hurling/camogie, the GAA clubs take part in cultural activities too. Every year the GAA organises a competition called Scor and there is Scor na nOg for the under-17 players. The categories are;

Rince Foirne (Figure/Céilí Dancing): Traditional Irish group dancing

Amhránaíocht Aonair (Solo Singing): Traditional or folk singing.

Aithriseoireacht/Scéalaíocht (Recitation/Storytelling): Humorous or serious monologue.

Ceol Uirlise (Instrumental Music): Traditional music group.

Léiriú Stairiúil / Nuachleas (Novelty Act/Stage Presentation): A short sketch, often comedy.

Bailéad Ghrúpa (Ballad Group): Group singing with harmony.

Rince Seit (Set Dancing): Traditional set dance.

Tráth na gCeisteanna (Table Quiz): A four-person team quiz on Irish history, culture, and sport.

In Scór, all the counties in Ireland compete against each other with everyone hoping to win. It's a really big thing. The clubs in the county compete against each other and then the counties compete against each other and then the Provinces compete against each other and eventually there is an all-Ireland winner!

As you can see, everyone encourages the Irish language (Gaeilge). I love Irish. I study it at school. My Grandad was from Gweedore in Donegal and his first language was Irish and my mum studied Irish too

Last year I entered as part of a ballad group and it was great fun. This year we didn't have enough people to form a group. However, I wanted to represent my club so I decided to give solo singing a try. I had never sung before in public but I thought I would give it a go and I accompanied myself with my harp. I have been learning to sing songs in the Irish language and I have a lovely teacher called Róise who speaks fluent Irish.

I chose the traditional song, Siúil a Rún. It is a beautiful song with both Irish and English words, Clannad recorded an amazing version of this song and Moya's singing is beautiful. I had less than a month to prepare! I knew my singing needed a lot of work but I tried to copy Moya and did my best.

The first round of the competition was the County Down semi-final and it was in Ardglass. This was a very new experience to me and I was competing against very good singers - 3 would be chosen from 11 singers to go through to the county final. I was extremely nervous but once I started it all went well. I couldn't believe it when I heard my name called out and I got through to the Down final!

The Down final was a couple of weeks later in Warrenpoint. It definitely was a step up from the previous round. The singers were all amazing and only 1 out of 6 would go through to the Ulster final. I tried my best but unfortunately, I didn't make it through. I wasn't too disappointed as it was a good learning opportunity and I was glad I found my voice to sing in public - I just need to work at it.

There's always next year...