South Manchester singer to follow in Oasis footsteps

21 year old Rebecca Sweeney from Levenshulme is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her famous cousins Liam and Noel Gallagher from the world famous Burnage super group Oasis after winning this years Magners Irish Factor in the Oasis Music Lounge, at the Farmers Arms in Burnage.

When asked about how she felt about winning the prestigious competition the modest singer replied “I had a great time, all the singers were fantastic and anyone of them could have won it. It is great to be part of the Irish Festival, Liam brought his new band ‘Beady Eye’ to the Apollo during the opening weekend of the festival. Hopefully he might get me up on stage next year.”

Tony Harte the Cork born manager of the Farmers said “It was a great night and everyone gave a great performance, it was lovely to see local girl Rebecca Sweeney win the competition. The venue and the acts were delighted to be part of the Manchester Irish, we wish Rebecca and all the finalists the best of luck in the future singing careers. We just hope they do not forget us when they become famous. The venue has been turned Green over the past two weeks for the festival, I never knew we had so many people with Irish roots here, its been a bigger Irish celebration here than back home in Ireland.”

The eight finalists were Tommy McCluskey, Harry Catterall, Jessica Lynch, Erica Kielty, Rebecca Sweeney, Denise Morgan, Kate Healey and Keith Doyle. The competition was won by Rebecca Sweeney with Kate Healey and Jessica Lynch were runners up. Kate Healey commented “I really enjoyed taking part in the contest and the people were very friendly in The Farmers.” Jessica said "I might now get a call from Simon to do the US shows".

The competition was just one of the highlights of this years’ Manchester Irish Festival which was launched by Shay Given and runs until Sunday 20 March. The Festival will stage just over 200 events at over 50 venues and is already Europe’s biggest Irish Festival. The award winning Joe Casserley from ALLFM’s Full Irish Radio will perform the closing night concert at the Farmers on Sunday 20 March.