X marks the spot for Sligo's Tabby on the brink of stardom

Word has it that at a recent wedding in Sligo the speeches were interrupted after an urgent message came through that the Tabby phone line was open. Guests whipped out their mobile phones and voted early and often for the local boy on the brink of stardom.

"Friends of Tabby" pulled off another stunning coup (it was a big wedding) and Trevor "Tabby" Callaghan was on his way to the next round of UTV's talent spotting contest The X Factor.

Mass-goers at Sligo cathedral last week were amused when the priest finished off his sermon with an exhortation that they should vote for Tabby. And, not to be outdone, members of Sligo Borough Council recently passed a unanimous motion congratulating 23-year-old Tabby on his success and urging the public to vote for him.

With Sligo decked out in Tabby posters and bunting, those who have never tuned into the UTV show must be perplexed. Tabby, one of 50,000 acts to enter the contest, was one of two Irish finalists chosen for the weekly television showdown which has had millions spellbound. Every Saturday the contestants do their stuff live on the show and viewers phone or text their vote.

Judges Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell have the final say about which of the bottom two should go and Tabby has romped home each week bar once when he just scraped through. Sharon Osbourne has become his mentor and minder and even bought the guitar he uses on the show.

Tabby's mother, Bridgie Callaghan - that's where he got the voice, neighbours say - is leading the campaign back home to get the Tabby vote out. No opportunity is lost and colleagues in the Garavogue pub where she works as a cleaner are amused at how many telephone interviews she has conducted in one of the cupboards there.

Callaghan is scathing about British media suggestions that Tabby was less than loyal to his band DZ 5 who auditioned for the show. The judges indicated they didn't want the band but they did want Tabby and, as he remarked to Marian Finucane on her RTÉ Radio 1 show during the week "either I went back and auditioned on my own or I went home to Sligo and scratched my arse".

"Friends of Tabby" is headed by Stella Carroll and Gavin Walsh who, with military precision each Saturday, get 3,500 text messages sent within an hour and a half of the show, urging strangers to text "vote Tabby" to 53125.

"The Tabby phenomenon is remarkable ," says Jim Gray of the Sligo Champion. "People are as proud of Tabby as they are of Westlife but it is different because everyone feels they have a stake in this - their vote is keeping him in."

In the Village Inn pub in Carton, Sligo, hundreds of his neighbours gather every Saturday evening to watch the show on a giant screen which one patron remarked could well go out the window if he doesn't get through tonight to next week's final.

Callaghan says with or without the €1.4 million recording contract which goes to the winner her son (dubbed Tabby because of his father Jimmy's cat-like prowess as a goalie with Sligo Rovers) "has made it".