Every little helps: Mary comes home to hero's welcome

Check this out: ‘X Factor’ star poses at till No 40

A WORKING-CLASS hero is something to be celebrated in these straitened times when there is nothing but doom and gloom about.

X Factorsemi-finalist Mary Byrne (51), left Ballyfermot with a dream and arrived back with a Garda escort to a huge crowd and a make-shift platform in front of the Tesco where she worked for 11 years.

The crowd were kept waiting for nearly an hour because Byrne's flight was delayed getting in from London where she had been at the X Factorwrap party on Monday night.

Despite the chill of a mid-December afternoon, the warm reception she received moved the singer to tears, though she freely admitted that the rollercoaster ride of her time on X Factorbrought her to tears on many occasions.

Schoolchildren from St Gabriel’s Primary School and St Raphael’s Primary School Ballyfermot carried placards and shouted “Mary, Mary, Mary” as the singer was momentarily lost for words as she took in the sea of faces in front of her, most of whom she knew personally.

“I always thought Ballyfermot people were supportive, but that was beyond the call of duty,” she said.

Flanked by her daughter Debbie and brother Tommy, who is a singer himself, Byrne raised the biggest cheer when she revealed that she would making an album.

Then her speech was drowned out by cries of “sing, sing, sing”.

Byrne obliged with her version of James Brown's It's a Man's Man's Man's World, a song she sang on two occasions during X Factor– this time with a slight croak in her throat as a result of a throat infection.

“Go on you good thing,” shouted one enthusiastic fan.

Afterwards, she entered her long-time employers Tesco, trailed by staff and media and passed a phalanx of security officers who had to keep the enthusiastic crowd at bay.

Byrne posed at till No 40, now surely the most famous supermarket till in the world.

Not since she entered the bear pit of the live finals on the X Factorhas she been back to the supermarket.

Holding court in the training room of Tesco Ballyfermot where she spent many hours in a previous life, Byrne was remarkably sanguine about the revelations that she polled more votes than teenager Cher Lloyd, though the judges opted to send Byrne home at the semi-final stage.

“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 and that was fantastic. It was what it is, and there are no hard feelings whatsoever,” she said.

She admitted though that she “felt like slapping” the emotional Lloyd on several occasions “and I’ve told her that to her face” and she counselled teenagers against taking part in the competition.

“It’s emotionally draining, the politics are frightening. I felt sorry for the young kids at times. I really would say, wait until you are older.

“You have loads of years to be a pop star.”

She dreams of singing with big orchestras doing the big show songs that were her metier during the X Factor, but won't leave Ireland to live elsewhere in any circumstances.

“I’d never leave my country, I love it too much,” she said.

She plans to do the X Factortour, make an album of covers followed by an album of original material, but her immediate priority will be the Late Late Showon Friday night.

“I have to look after it now, it’s my job,” she said pointing to her throat.