Emer Fogarty on the power of song and understanding your mindset

Her heart rate slowed as she took a few short steps across the stage.

It was a long journey to get her to this point, and now she stood in front of millions of eyes, but for those fleeting moments it was just her, the microphone and the memory of her father.

Former Kildare footballer Emer Fogarty entered the Rose of Tralee competition in 2019 and she could never have imagined the legacy of her song choice that night. Her father, Mick, had died suddenly in late 2016 and she felt a special resonance with The Parting Glass.

"I had actually never sang The Parting Glass," said Fogarty.

"My dad used to play the guitar and I would sing with him from when I was very young and there were different Irish songs we would do. When I made my application before the Kildare Rose selection I was trying to figure out a song and sometimes I would say, give us a dig out there, whatever you think I should go for. Then I was teaching a yoga class and Ed Sheeran's version of The Parting Glass came on.

"I was watching the Late Late and Sibeál (Ni Chasaide) sang it too. I was kind of playing with the song in my head and when I was out running I put it on repeat. I said, you know I think there is something in this song. When I kept listening to it I kept getting upset because every time I listened it connected because it's a song about life and loss and parting.

"That person rises and you don’t, and that is just part of it. I suppose the more I reflected on the meaning in the song, I realised that it’s very much a song that is associated with loss."

The 27-year-old is from Kilgowan in South Kildare and played her club football with St Laurence’s. She featured for Kildare from U-12 all the way to adult level winning a TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate