A catch up with Cavan’s Strictly winners

The winners of the Strictly for Cuan fundraiser are still reeling from their big win last weekend, when selected as wildcards by the judges on the night.

Both Cáit McGovern and Dylan Byrd agreed to do the dancing fundraiser again in a heartbeat, performing their routine three times last Sunday night and bringing home the overall win.

When Dylan received the call from Angela Callaghan, Cuan Chairperson, he immediately agreed to get involved. It was only on the launch night, when all the dancers met for the first time, that he asked himself ‘what have I gotten myself into?’.

“She didn’t mention how much effort would have to go into it,” he laughs.

For Cáit, she was sitting in the beautician’s chair at Finishing Touches when Sharon Smith asked her a favour.

“Absolutely not, not a chance in hell am I standing up on stage in front of people and dancing. No way,” she recalls her response.

“Just think about it,” Sharon told her when she was leaving.

After giving it more thought, and with a healthy dose of persuasion, Cáit found herself attending the first rehearsal too.

“As soon as I said yes it was like something lit a fire underneath my feet, I said I’m going to do this and I am going to do this well,” she told the Celt.

Dylan and Cáit were delighted to discover they’d been matched. The pair were well used to working with each other from their four years at Kiernan’s Filling Station, and having known each other since they were five years old.

Dylan is no stranger to dancing, having performed on the Britain’s Got Talent stage 10 years ago. Cáit fondly remembers rooting for him, watching the TV on her sitting room floor in Killygarry.

Cáit admits she’s not “a dancer”, however she did do it in her younger days and attended The Performance Academy.

“I always had a bit of rhythm in me but I’m not a dancer,” she contends.

“My worry coming into this was being paired with someone who had no rhythm at all,” Dylan confesses, delighted to find out this was not the case.

“After we got paired together, it came up on my Snapchat memories from six years ago, the two of us dancing behind the shop. We were just messing, the shop was empty and we were having the craic,” she laughs.

The country music theme was another shock to the pair, who were completely out of their comfort zone when it came to boot stomping and cowboy hats. Through rehearsals, the song ‘The Cowboy Dance!’ grew on both of them, and their hip hop line dance routine came together over six weeks of training.

On the day, Cáit felt “grand” about performing with no nerves, while Dylan was “really calm” until the hour before the show.

“I wasn’t nervous on stage but after I was so emotional. I was so overwhelmed, we were the first group that got all tens,” Dylan recalls.

“The crowd went absolutely insane,” Cáit adds.

“I’ll never get the noise of the crowd out of my head.”

“The overall win, I was so shocked, I was sobbing. I’m not an emotional person, when it comes to performing, I don’t get emotional, I don’t know what it was. I haven’t performed in front of a huge audience in years. After not performing for so long to get that amount of support, I was just so overwhelmed with it,” Dylan says.

Which stage is better, The Hotel Kilmore or Britain’s Got Talent?

“Well I have to say two completely different experiences. I think it’s always different performing at home because I feel like there is more pressure on [at home].

“My whole family was in the audience [at Strictly], for BGT at the live shows, it was my mam, my brother and my sister.”

“I think the older you get, the more judgement you feel. I was 16 when I did BGT so I didn’t care. I didn’t care that it was live on TV, it didn’t hit me until it was all over.”

“Two incredible experiences in my life but I do think home turf is harder to perform in,” he surmises.

“When I think back on that, it was such a surreal experience.”

After coming home from BGT, the Clifferna native described it as “wild”. But he also recalls: “I didn’t want to leave my house.”

“I wasn’t expecting it to be as big as it was. I was a child,” the now 27-year-old says, recalling walking around Cavan Town and people stopping him to take photos, while strangers also waved at him.

Dylan went on to study theatre and film in college, and hadn’t danced in around five years when the Cuán Strictly came calling. Has this opportunity reopened the door to performing?

“I’m so glad I said yes, and I’m so glad I got to appreciate dance again.

“I think it’s put more love in my heart for performing and appreciating it more. I don’t know to be honest.”

To rediscover his passion for dancing again, and also raise “life changing” funds together with Cáit, the pair have had an unforgettable few weeks. The Strictly for Cuan fundraiser brought in a total of €276,079.

“To say that it was fun is an understatement because fun doesn’t even encapsulate the whole lot,” Cáit says.

“We were so supported the whole way through, and to win it was the icing on the cake,” Dylan agrees.