PAST winners of the Over 60s talent competition put on a great afternoon of entertainment at the Cork Penny Dinners Craoí na Laoí Centre on James’s Street last weekend.

Also present were past finalists, and speaking to The Echo, organiser Paddy O’Brien said it had been a wonderful afternoon of singing.

“All of the entertainers received a great welcome from Caitríona Twomey and her volunteers,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The capacity crowd turned up to hear some of Cork’s best singers, some in their 60s and some in their 70s and 80s.

“People started to arrive just after 2pm, and the show didn’t begin until 3pm.”

The Over 60s competition had to be discontinued at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, and Mr O’Brien has not restarted it because a lot of older people are still very reluctant to leave their homes.

However, he said that some of those who would normally have turned up for the local heats of the Over 60s down through the years were in attendance on Sunday.

“It was like a reunion for the Over 60s supporters, all delighted to see each other again,” Mr O’Brien said, noting that the most recent heat of the Over 60s took place in 2019.

“Mary Conway, who won the Over 60s outright in 2009, and who will celebrate her 96th birthday in July, headed the list of past winners — she got a wonderful reception,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Other winners to perform on the evening were Marion Collins, Charlie McAllister, Billy Horgan, and the backing on the night was by the ever popular Ger Bruton.

“Helping big-time were some of the finalists who took part in different years back to 2001. We had Carole Lennox, Bernice Piggott, Fred Lotty, Tony Blackshields, Kevin Cummins, Nuala Pannick, and Tony Blackshields,” he added.

“A special guest entertainer on the evening was Penny Dinners volunteer, Joie. He’s a songwriter, and he entertained the audience with his rendition of a song called ‘The Echo Boy’, a song that he wrote himself.”

In the audience was former Lord Mayor Councillor Tony Fitzgerald (Fianna Fáil), and Sinn Féin Councillor Mick Nugent.

Mr O’Brien said that Caitríona Twomey had thanked all who had been part of the concert.

“She spoke about the great joy and the happiness that the concert had brought to the audience,” he said.

“There were so many people there, people of so many nationalities, and they all said to me they had seen something they had never seen before: Elderly people putting on a performance.

“All present were treated to some lovely food, bringing the evening to a lovely conclusion, and Caitríona’s final words to the entertainers were ‘don’t stay away too long’,” he concluded.