Garry Dunphy from Ringsend and Simon Murphy of East Wall, pictured with Gerry Kelly of DDDA, were chosen as the overall winner of the fourth Dockland Talent Showcase.

The grand final of this year’s contest was held in the Abbey Theatre on 6th of March. The two musicians who performed their own song called ‘Shine On’ received the first prize of a trophy and a holiday voucher worth €1,200.

Patrick Brennan of Ringsend was awarded second prize. He gave a truly excellent performance of ‘Somewhere’ from ‘West Side Story’ and the third prize was won by Linda Dowling from Oriel Street in the North Strand who performed ‘The Power of Love’.

The show featured fourteen talented finalists, who either live or work in the Docklands, selected from a group of over forty hopefuls who took part in auditions held in the Clarion Hotel.

The Dublin 4 area of the Docklands was well represented with eight of the finalists living in the locality. They were Sara Murphy from Irishtown, and from the Ringsend area came Francis Daly, Patrick Brennan, Amy Blount, Deborah O’Connor, Kate Murphy, Stephen Naughton and Garry Dunphy who was part of a duo made up of Simon Murphy from East Wall.

Kevin Hough produced the event, the musical director was Andy O’Callaghan and the former Irish international footballer Niall Quinn presented the show. The panel of Judges included Bairbre Power, assistant News Editor with the ‘Evening Herald’; Derek Mooney, radio and TV presenter with RTE; Brenda Donoghue, Actress; Brian Jackson, the Chairman of the Abbey Theatre and Donall Curtain, member of the Board of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and Chairman of the Adjudication panel.

The Docklands talent Showcase is organised as part of the Social Regeneration initiative. Gerry Kelly the director of Social Regeneration at the DDDA said they were delighted with the response to the talent contest and very impressed with the range and talent of all the participants.

Young people from Docklands will get the chance to show their talent in the Young Persons talent Showcase that will take place on the 24th of April. This will be the second Annual Young people’s talent showcase. There are two age groups 12 to 16 years old and 6 to 11 years old. Flyers will be distributed in the area in March. The finals will be held in the National Concert Hall. If you are eligible to take part, and think you have talent apply for the audition and start practising your act.