Brother and sister duo Donna and Joseph McCaul confirmed their status as bookies' favourites by winning last night's final of the You're A Star talent competition.
From Athlone, Co Westmeath, the siblings will now represent Ireland in the semi-final of the Eurovision song contest, to be staged in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 19th.
Donna (20) and Joseph (17) will represent Ireland with Love? by songwriter Karl Broderick, which they performed on last night's final broadcast on RTÉ 1 television.
Broderick's song was the only one performed during the weekend to emerge from a public competition organised to find new songwriting talent.
In last night's final, the McCauls defeated Jade, a four- piece all-female band from Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford, who sang Pink Champagne by Ray Traynor. Saturday's semi-final saw the elimination of The Henry Sisters from Belfast.
The McCauls were voted winners of the competition by thousands of viewers who cast their votes by text and phone. Each vote cost 60 cents. RTÉ declined to say how many people voted during last night's final, citing commercial reasons.
Ireland was forced to pre- qualify for this year's Eurovision after last year's entrant, Chris Doran, came second last with just seven votes. The McCauls will progress to the final of the Eurovision on May 21st if they finish in the top 10 in the semi-final.
Athlone's mayor, independent councillor Austin Berry, last night hailed the success of the McCauls. "Everyone is delighted for them. I travelled up on a bus with a group of supporters to attend the final, and we are just so proud of Donna and Joe.
"The excitement around Athlone has been unbelievable over the last few weeks. The McCauls are a well-known and popular family, and they have been great ambassadors for Athlone."
Mr Berry promised a large contingent of local supporters would travel to the Ukrainian capital to support the duo in the Eurovision semi-final.
