Crowds turn out to greet X-Factor star

Hundreds of local people turned out earlier today for X-Factor semi-finalist Mary Byrne’s homecoming to Ballyfermot.

The 51-year-old singer was overwhelmed with the welcome she received from a crowd which included hundreds of schoolchildren from St Gabriel's Primary School and St Raphael's Primary School in Ballyfermot.

The schoolchildren chanted "Mary, Mary, Mary" and held up banners professing their admiration for the singer.

The homecoming took place in the car-park outside the Tesco where she worked for 12 years.

Byrne was accompanied on the makeshift stage by her daughter Debbie and her brother Tommy who is also a singer.

Compere Brenda O'Donoghue, who is making a documentary about Byrne for RTE, introduced the singer by saying that she was back in the "most important place" which is Ballyfermot.

Byrne thanked the crowd and got the loudest cheer when she said she was going to make an album.

Eventually her voice was drowned out by the crowd shouting "sing, sing, sing" and Byrne obliged by singing This Is A Man's Man's World, a song that she also sang during the X Factor finals.

Later she posed for pictures at her old till 40 where a wall where people could leave good wishes was placed during her time on the X Factor.

She expressed no anger that the voting figures from the show showed that she polled more votes than teenage singer Cher Lloyd, but was sent home by the judges.

"It's in the past. First of all I was given the opportunity and not many Irish people are given that opportunity in the UK as such and that was fantastic. It was what it is and there are no hard feelings whatsoever," she said.

She plans to appear on the Late Late Show on Friday night. After that she is hoping to record an album of covers and then expressed a desire to also record an album of original material.

"I'd love to write a few little songs myself and put them down on an album or a single," she said.