After finishing as runner-up on a record seven occasions, persistence paid off for Cork singer Máire Ní Chéileachair as she lifted the Corn Uí Riada, the premier prize of sean-nós singing, at Oireachtas na Samhna in Killarney on Saturday.

The late Monsignor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was not a man to shy away from a challenge. 

Two days after winning the men’s singing contest at Oireachtas na Samhna in Killarney, Conchubhar Ó Luasa of Cúil Aodha, Co Cork, became the youngest-ever winner of the Irish language festival’s top prize, the Corn Uí Riada.

Plans are under way to establish a monastery in Cork’s Muskerry Gaeltacht.