Dancing With The Stars: Kilkenny hurling legend Aidan ‘back in the game’ as Glitterball champ John Nolan crashes out
Hurling legend Aidan Fogarty is left flying the flag for Kilkenny on TV’s Dancing with the Stars after John Nolan and his celebrity partner Mary Kennedy crashed out of the show last night.
John won the coveted Glitterball last year with TV presenter Mairéad Ronan, but his DWTS journey for 2020 ended after he and Mary danced off against fellow contestants Gráinne Gallanagh and Kai Widdrington.
As they ended their run in the competition, Mary performed a lively cha-cha-cha to Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton.
Judge Darren Bennett, who was standing in for an ill Julian Benson, said he felt it was a real challenge for Mary this week, while Brian Redmond said the dance was forced at times.
After her elimination, Mary said: “It was a wonderful opportunity, I’ve learnt so much. I’ve been out of of my comfort zone. It was a great challenge. I really do hope that people of my age watching it would say ‘yeah I could do that or I’ll try something different or something new.”
However, eight-time All-Ireland winner Aidan is still very much in the running to win the competition after he performed an impressive rumba to U2’s One his dance partner Emily Barker.
After they finished Aidan said: “It was the hardest dance I ever had to learn. It’s exposing and emotional. It was painful but we got there later in the week.”
Aidan and Emily scored an impressive 23 points from the judges, with Darren commenting: “Like a true sportsman you’ve come back fighting. Last week, it was stiff and disjointed. This week I didn’t see any of that. You are back in the game.”
