Danny Boy

DANNY BOY

The Koroit Irish Festival is home to the Koroit Bakehouse Australian Danny Boy Championship.

In 2024 the winner was the incredible Demby McKenzie.

Entries for the 2025 Koroit Bakehouse Australian Danny Boy Championship are now being taken and can be done by emailing us at info@koroitirishfestival.com.au

First prize is $1000 so get your entry in now!

Entrants in the 2025 Danny Boy Championship will be selected from heats run on the day of the Festival, with a judging panel determining who moves into the final later that evening.

Danny Boy Heats: To be held on Saturday April 26 at the Commercial Hotel Koroit from 10am.

Final: Koroit Theatre 5pm.

The finalists will meet at the Koroit Theatre where the champion will be decided.

Your Festival pass wristband allows you to attend the Danny Boy Final. Seats are limited so get in early. 

For those who want to sing along, here are the words to the famous ballad!

Oh, Danny Boy the pipes, the pipes are calling

From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.

The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,

It’s you, it’s you must go, and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,

Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow.

It’s I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow,

Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.

But when ye come, and all the flow’rs are dying,

And if I’m dead, as dead I well may be.

Ye’ll come and find the place where I am lying,

And kneel and say an Ave there for me.

And I shall hear though soft you tread above me,

And though my grave shall, warmer, sweeter be.

For you will bend and tell me that you love me,

And I will sleep in peace until you come to me.

Past winners

2024 - Demby McKenzie

2023 - Angela Fitzgerald

2022 - Ruby McKenna

2021 – Geraldine Finn

2019 – Isabel McCosh

2018 – Gabby Steel

2017 – Lisa Walsh

2016 – Katie Hayward

2015 – Shannon Salisbury

2014 – Tali Morrissey

2013 – Nancie Schipper

2012 – Maja Pearson

2011 – Anne Bakker

2010 – Kevin Bowman

2009 – Carolyn Tomkin

2008 – Cassidy Hill-Davidson, David Cunningham

2007 – Rebecca Tomkin, Anne Gasko

2006 – Maja Ryan

2005 – Tom Nicholson

2004 – Gerrard Norman

2003 – Barbara Nolte (Brooks)

2002 – Peter McElgunn

2001 – Ray Willis

2000 – Michael Morgan

1999 – Elizabeth Mason

1998 – Anne De Vries