- Lord of the Dance and Michael Flatley win the Irish
Entertainment Performance of the Year, as reported in
in a story on the 29th December, 1997, duplicated below.......(he is not mentioned till last paragraph, and only that he won the award)
IRELAND
Monday, December 29,1997
Ronan Keating, the Boyzone singer and Eurovision
presenter, has been named Entertainment Personality
of the Year. With 20 per cent of the 10,000 votes cast in
a tele-poll, he emerged an easy winner of Ireland's
main showbusiness award ahead of nine other
nominees.
He was presented with the award at a TV show in the
National Concert Hall last night. Keating, with Carrie
Crowley of RTÉ, was one of the ceremony's
presenters, which was attended by more than 1,200.
He is from Swords, Co Dublin, and has been with
Boyzone from the beginning. He co-wrote many of their
original hits.
Although aged just 21, he has also worked widely in
television and co-hosted, with Carrie Crowley, this
year's Eurovision Song Contest at the Point Theatre.
Last night's show was presented by the Rehab
foundation and RTÉ and sponsored by Telecom
Éireann. Ticket sales from the event raised over
£30,000 for Rehab.
The category award winners were: traditional - Cooney
and Begley; popular - The Corrs; rock - Divine
Comedy; classical - Cara O'Sullivan; Éamonn Andrews
"Hall of Fame" - Paddy Cole; performance of the year -
Lord of the Dance/Michael Flatley; variety - Dustin.
Also reported on the VB, Deb rang the offices of RTE, in Dublin and they confirmed that Michael was there in person to receive the award....and was fit and healthy.