Maria Bergin Announced as National Anthem Winner

Maria Bergin has today been announced as the overall winner of the LGFA National Anthem competition that has been running since early August. The 21 year old from Prosperous in County Kildare now has the honor of performing Ámhrán na bhFiann in Croke Park on September 27^th at the TG4 All Ireland Finals before Cork and Dublin contest the Senior Final at 4pm.

Maria was chosen from a huge entry that included some highly accomplished and experienced singers as one the final two performers along with Dervla Magennis from Armagh who performed at the Dublin versus Armagh TG4 All Ireland Semi Final in Parnell Park. Maria performed her version of Amrhán na bhFiann at the TG4 All Ireland Semi Final between Cork and Kerry at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick and hugely impressed the judges who selected her as the overall winner.

Maria is currently studying Music and Irish at Maynooth University and is hoping to achieve a Grade 8 in singing from the Royal Academy of Irish Music. Maria is also an accomplished sportswoman having played for Naas GAA since she was 7 years old and plays ladies football and camogie for her club where she is also a qualfied camogie and ladies football referee.

Entrants to the National Anthem competition were invited to submit a CV along with a YouTube clip of them performing. The competition proved to be a massive success with a huge amount of extremely talented entrants.  Maria is the first of two finalists with a second to be named later this week. The second finalist will then perform at the TG4 All Ireland Semi Final between Dublin and Armagh with the overall winner receiving the honor of performing the Amhrán na bhFiann at Croke Park at the TG4 All Ireland Finals on September 27^th.