Ireland's leading national classical music festival has returned to the RDS for the first fully live Feis Ceoil since 2019.
It was day one of the 12-day music competition, which is celebrating its 127th year, and its 40th year at the RDS in Dublin.
Feis Ceoil CEO Laura Gilsenan said: "After the years that we've had, between having to cancel (amid the Covid-19 pandemic) and then go online and then hybrid, now everything is fully back, we don't have to curtail audiences, we can have our choirs and orchestras back and there's a great buzz around the place on day one of Feis Ceoil".
Winners of the Marchant Cup Heather Sammon and Bláthnaid Nicholson agree.
"Singing online is nothing like singing in person," Ms Nicholson said.
"The feel from the audience, its great, its just great," her duet partner Ms Sammon agreed.
Younger contestants were equally enthused about competing in the RDS.
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The winning Junior Violist Leo Wang explained that he had "practised a lot for this because I really wanted it".
His teacher Maria Kelemen could boast of teaching the students who came both first and second in that competition, as Stacey Wang placed just a point behind Leo.
"If its good its good and if its not good then you learn something from it," she said of her students' participation in the competition.
"We are very very grateful for the Feis People to go and organise this, and its very important for them even if they never become professional," Ms Kelemen said, quickly adding that "I didn't say they won't."
Many of the Feis Ceoil's previous contestants have.
Among them tenor John McCormack who performed in 1903 at the seventh-ever Feis Ceoil.
More recent Feis Ceoil alumni include pianists John O'Connor and Finghin Collins and singers Tara Erraught and Celine Byrne.
The event's CEO was also involved in her youth.
"My first time in the Feis Ceoil was back when I think I was 12 or 13 back in the school orchestra. I didn't really have a sense of the history, and I certainly had no idea I was going to end up in this position," Ms Gilsenan said.
"It becomes part of your life, it becomes part of your musical year and it engenders a great sense of healthy competition then when you get to see the rival schools or the rival competitors, and its just something people look forward to every year," she said.
This afternoon was Kateryna Selfe's third time performing the Family Ensemble competition with her children Athénaïs, 12, Aristide, 14 and Ariane-Eugénie, 9, but this was their first time winning.
A clearly proud mother watched on as her 12-year-old daughter exclaimed that she "really enjoyed" the performance, not just because she won, but because, she said: "Happiness flows into me when I play with my family, I love my family."
