‘I kneed him in the *****!’ – Kilkenny dancing star John Nolan soaks up pain in practice with partner Mairéad

KILKENNY’s John Nolan has revealed how he took quite a bit of painful punishment in rehearsals leading up to last Sunday night’s televised performance on the hit RTÉ show.

Yesterday John’s celebrity partner, the presenter Mairéad Ronan, shared a link to KilkennyNow.ie’s review of their latest performance, which earned the popular couple 27 joints from the Dancing with the Stars judges – their best so far, to her followers.

Mairéad (pictured above with John in rehearsals this week) also commented: “Poor John Edward Nolan suffered a lot teaching me this routine last week. I elbowed him in the jaw, stamped on his middle tow and kneed him in the $&!!$ – all accidentally of course!”

Mairéad also said she is “thrilled” to be in the semi-final of the show and thanked everyone from Kilkenny who has supported them so far.

John admitted last week was “particularly rough”. But he said he’d be very happy to do it all over again if meant they could put in a repeat performance in this weekend’s semi-final.

And he had nothing but praise for his partner, who he said put in her “best performance” on the show so far and who is growing in confidence as it enters its final stages.

John told KilkennyNow.ie: “Yes, a few elbows in the jaw, a few kicks in the lower regions, but it’s all part of it – every single bruise was worth in it. And she can keep kicking away if she continues to put in performances like that.”

He added: “The three weeks before the show were really tough so we worked extra hard. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I told Mairéad to forget totally what the judges had said to her and go out and give it everything and that’s what she did. Sunday was her best performance.”