Press

John Rafferty from Belfast crowned 'Glór Tíre' champion 2019

27.03.19

John Rafferty from Belfast was crowned TG4 ‘Glór Tíre’ champion for 2019, live in The Quays in Galway last night.

In a highly contested final, John Rafferty took the majority of the public votes to beat Damien Davis from Monaghan & Noreen Rabbette from Offaly, to take the coveted title of ‘Glór Tíre’ champion for 2019 and win the cash prize of €5000.

John Rafferty was mentored by country star Johnny Brady.

Speaking after winning, John Rafferty said :

“It means the absolute world to me. I’d like to thank TG4 and the whole ‘Glór Tíre‘ team. Everyone has made us so welcome and everything was spot on. I’m still up on cloud nine at the minute so we’ll see how long it takes to come down again. But it’ll be a great road ahead I think. Fingers crossed!”

‘Glór Tíre’, produced by Gaelmedia, was presented by Aoife Ni Thuairisg and Séamus Ó Scanláin, with help from the judges John Creedon, Caitríona Ní Shúilleabháin and Jo Ní Chéide who ably guided the contestants. The winner was decided by a public vote.

After the announcement of the winner, judge John Creedon said:

“If ever there was a year to win, this was the year to win because the bar was the highest yet. What we had was a humdinger of a contest.  Brilliant. And the other two contestants were brilliant as well.”

You can catch up with all of the action from this year’s ‘Glór Tíre’ on the TG4 Player here.