Gavin James' praise for Muff's Michaela

Michaela Ni Loingsigh - Ni Ghrainne covered the popular Gavin James song, ‘For You’ in Irish for TG4’s ‘Lurgan Beo,’ alongside students of the acclaimed Coláiste Lurgan.

The 19-year-old is a former student of the Irish language school and last summer, worked as a cúntóir there.

The school is famous for recording music videos and performing covers of popular songs ‘as gaeilge.’ Michaela told the ‘Journal’ that when she received the opportunity to cover a song in Irish, she decided to combine this with her love of Gavin James’ music.

The song and accompanying video have garnered huge praise. Michaela’s version was featured on national news sites and the video was ‘retweeted’ by Gavin James himself, who described it to his 43,000 twitter followers as “soooo good.”

Michaela, who is studying primary school teaching in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, said she “couldn’t believe it” when she saw the tweet. She added how she hoped the coverage would “hopefully encourage more people to partake in using whatever amount of gaeilge they have.”

Both music and the Irish language are obviously huge loves of Michaela’s. She has been involved in music “as far” as can remember, but admits she only really began to use the Irish language after attending Colaiste Lurgan when she was 16-years-old.

It was something she “always wanted to do” as she not only wanted to improve her Irish but “wanted to have fun which is exactly what Coláiste Lurgan provides you with an opportunity to do.” She hopes to return again next summer as she loves also encouraging others to fall in love with the Irish language.

Michaela, a former Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana student, is keen to credit her former singing and guitar teachers for her love of music and also had “great teachers” who encouraged her to learn Irish. As she returns to Colaiste Lurgan each year she has grown to love it “more and more.” She said: “I have also learned so much more from when I first began attending the Coláiste - and now being able to use the language is something I am really proud of.”

You can watch Michaela’s video here.