{"id":347639,"date":"2026-03-15T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347639\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:00:22","slug":"katelyn-cummins-i-hate-to-be-taking-the-spotlight-from-mum-on-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347639\/","title":{"rendered":"Katelyn Cummins: \u2018I hate to be taking the spotlight from Mum on Mother\u2019s Day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 21-year-old apprentice electrician from the village of Ballyouskill, Co Kilkenny, is a hot favourite to dance home with the glitterball trophy on tonight\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

Katelyn will be competing against Tolu Makay, Paudie Moloney and Eric Roberts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes it extra special this Mother\u2019s Day is that my dance is dedicated to her,\u201d Katelyn reveals.<\/p>\n

\"Katelyn<\/p>\n

Katelyn Cummins with dad Noel and mum Siobhan<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect fit really for Mother\u2019s Day. I hate to be taking the spotlight away from her on Mother\u2019s Day being in the Dancing With The Stars final, but I think she\u2019ll be immensely proud to have it on a day that means so much to her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katelyn, who has a genetic hearing disability, says her mother has been an inspiration to her \u2013 and always encouraged her to live her life to the full.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mam always lived life to the fullest. She travelled to America and Australia when she was in her 20s, studied to become a hairdresser before that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe pursued what career she wanted to do, didn\u2019t listen to anybody and she influenced me to have that mindset as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe went travelling for two or three years and then she came back home and opened up her own salon. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo she pushed boundaries for herself that she never even realised, and then she is teaching her kids to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katelyn says that while \u201cpeople put a stigma on to somebody with a disability\u201d, her mother taught her to ignore other people\u2019s opinions and to believe in herself.<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/p>\n

Rose of Tralee Katelyn with pro dancer Leonardo Lini<\/p>\n

However, Katelyn, who is also the current Rose of Tralee, admits that she can\u2019t believe how her life has changed in just one year.<\/p>\n

She says: \u201cThis time one year ago I was sitting my last set of exams in college in Tullamore and I had applied for the Laois Rose, but nobody knew. We kept it a secret because I was like, \u2018what if I don\u2019t win, I don\u2019t want to be embarrassed by putting myself out there\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then flipping it around, my life has done a complete 360 to now. Every part of my life is out there. It\u2019s almost like, how did a 20-year-old girl, back when I won in Tralee, how did she become someone from probably one of the smallest villages in Ireland \u2013 we have a pub, we have a church, we have a hall \u2013 to go from that to living up in Dublin, to spending every day with all these incredible people who have so much experience?<\/p>\n

\"Katelyn<\/p>\n

Katelyn Cummins and Leonardo Lini reach the final of DWTS tonight<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been learning so much and growing so much as a person. I feel so much more mature. I\u2019m only 21, but I don\u2019t feel like the same age as my friends. It\u2019s been incredible. I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katelyn intends to complete her apprenticeship as an electrician. \u201cI never expected to put work on hold this year because I really want to get my degree under my belt,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to have something to fall back on in case something happens. After August I will go back and finish my apprenticeship. I joked that I\u2019d be the lighting technician on Dancing With The Stars next year behind the scenes. If I had an opportunity I\u2019d love to take that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katelyn<\/p>\n

Katelyn Cummins and Leonardo Lini on Dancing With The Stars<\/p>\n

This week Katelyn got a hero\u2019s welcome when she visited her village of Ballyouskill with her DWTS pro dancer, Italian-born Leonardo Lini.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were 300 people, I got so overwhelmed,\u201d Katelyn says. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect a whole entourage of people to come up. There were so many posters and a massive amount of children and I felt like a pop star.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like arriving to the red carpet. It was crazy. Me and Leonardo we were so overwhelmed. He has never seen what a true Irish community is. It was an honour for me to be able to show him how supportive my community has been for me over the last couple of months.<\/p>\n

Katelyn has grown up on a family dairy farm where she\u2019s always been actively involved in the daily work with her father Noel.<\/p>\n

\"Katelyn<\/p>\n

Katelyn Cummins on her family\u2019s dairy farm<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first year in the last 21 years of my life that I haven\u2019t been at home for the calving season,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my neighbours said this week, \u2018you can take the girl out of Ballyouskill but you can never take Ballyouskill out of the girl.\u2019 You can take me away from the countryside but you can never take the country out of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m missing the farm a bit. It was bonding time with my dad now that I look back on it. Even at 5.30 or six in the morning I\u2019d be chatting away to him about all different things in life before going to work or before going to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Katelyn says that growing up in the country and playing camogie has given her the competitive streak required to reach tonight\u2019s DWTS final.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into the show I wanted to have fun and I definitely did. But at the end of the day you would want to make it to the very end,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Dancing With The Stars is on RTE One on Sunday at 6.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 21-year-old apprentice electrician from the village of Ballyouskill, Co Kilkenny, is a hot favourite to dance home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21183,100176,93,61,60,6085],"class_list":["post-347639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dancing-with-the-stars","tag-eddie-rowley","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}