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24 Oct 2025
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24 Oct 2025
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Niamh O'Brien, 'Footloose' Choreographer
The members of St Mel's Musical Society's production of “Footloose” will be on tenterhooks this weekend as the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) have their annual awards.
AIMS is the umbrella organising body for all musical societies throughout Ireland. They organise the AIMS annual awards for musical societies that is held annually in Killarney over a weekend in June.
The nominations for the AIMS Awards came out in May. In those nominations the celebration of the exhilaration of youth, the wisdom of listening to one another, and the power of forgiveness presented by St Mel's Musical Society was given the nod in one category by AIMS.
The group were selected among the final three for the Best Ensemble Award in the Gilbert section for the fabulous opening scene of their April production.
Over five nights St Mel's Musical Society's enthralled audiences with their 2023 production of 'Footloose'. Even if the AIMS award does not go to the Longford show the audiences that attended in St Mels College gave it their stamp of approval.
Footloose' is a remake of the iconic 1984 film of the same name. It's the story of Chicago teen Ren McCormack (Brian Dalton) who, along with his mother Ethel (Louise Walsh), has moved to the small town of Bomont.
Ren finds himself at odds with most of the town, including the Reverend Moore (Paul Hennessy).
The Reverend has convinced the town to outlaw dancing, which Ren finds unbelievable.
With the help of Ariel (Natasha Brady), the Reverend’s daughter and his new friend Willard (Jesse Kersh), Ren convinces the Reverend to let the teenagers dance, and in the process helps the town to heal from a tragedy that affected them all.
The 2023 Association of Irish Musicals Society Awards take place in the INEC Killarney this Saturday night, June 17, with a massive attendance of over 1200 musical people from all over the country.
St Mels Musical Society will be up against two others groups for the prestigious Best Ensemble Award.
The other nominees are Teachers Musical Society (Dublin) for their production of ‘Urinetown’ and Trim Musical Society (Meath) for ‘Young Frankenstein'.
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