Beautiful Adare Manor shows it has the X Factor

A SUMMER of celebrity still continues to glisten in Adare Manor.

Last month it was Tiger Woods, Michael Douglas, Westlife, Hugh Grant and Catherine Zeta Jones who mingled with tens of thousands at the JP McManus Pro-Am Golf Classic.

But it was very much a hush-hush operation yesterday as the X Factor TV crews descended on the manor.

The programme draws an audience of almost 20 million viewers in Britain and Ireland.

Wannabe singing stars were filmed at various locations throughout the manicured grounds of the manor for the judges’ houses section of the competition.

The plush hotel is understood to be the setting for Louis Walsh’s house this year. Simon Cowell is filming in Spain, while it is thought Cheryl Cole’s group will join her in Los Angeles before she flies back to Britain for the livefinals.

New mum Dannii Minogue is understood to be staying close to home, in Melbourne, as she returns from her maternity leave.

A boy band were reluctant to talk when approached as they lazed by the banks of the River Maigue. One said: “The food is great. We’ve been here for a week. It’s a lovely place.”

Nearby we were told presenter Dermot O’Leary was doing a piece to camera on the bridge which leads on to the 18th green of the Manor golf course.

In the Manor reception camera crews bustled around getting their gear ready.

A member of the hotel management informed me: “There is a strict residents-only policy today.”

According to one source, Louis Walsh was on location in recent days, but there was no sighting of Simon Cowell – the creator of The X Factor.

Another group of heavily made-up female performers speculated about who they would like to judge them.

As The X Factor is the biggest television talent competition in Europe, its location at Adare is music to the ears of the local tourism industry.

Limerick County Councillor Rose Brennan said: “It’s absolutely fabulous to have The X Factor being made on location in the manor. What huge publicity, and coming after the huge success of the JP classic. You could not buy the kind of publicity Adare, the mid-west and Ireland is getting from the TV coverage of the golf and The X Factor.”