Oh, yeh.. I think that's my call. I wasn't sure if our host was going to have a breakdown before the end so I allowed myself to go to bed
Let me start by saying I am not very good at this. We have someone special assigned for this job, but this person has to sit back and accept this award.
Congratulations to everyone winning awards until now, well deserved! But face it, all your awards mean nothing compared to the one I will be presenting now. Just its name suggests that its importance will exceed this year's award ceremony thread and live on until, well, the rest of one's life.
Last year the
lifetime achievement award was given to miss Hazel Davis, Delorentos very first fan. This year, the award goes to the man whose name was chanted during one of the latest Delorentos concerts. I remember those days when all we could do was chant "Ró! Ross! Níal! Kier!" during concerts. We may have to add a name to this list. Scratch that, we will remove four names from that list and add only one:
NiallJoin me please..
Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall Niall NiallNiall Niall NiallOver the years, Niall has been the driving force to make this forum a happy place. He's scarily witty, surprisingly cheerful (for an Irish person) and by far the most modest man I know. He is the one who moulded the forum to its current state, in which threads like
Reasons to be cheerful, Brake fluid and
The ilwd/Duane thread flourish and fun is had all around (unfortunately often at the expense of miss Aoife, are you alright love?).
Apart from running this forum (soon to be official, we can only hope), Niall has also been making sure to be present at all special Delorentos events. We can see him dancing having a good time in the S.E.C.R.E.T. video and he never fails to modestly comment on
all those secret gigs he's been to. I guess Delos honouring his name by embarrassing the crap out of him was only a matter of time, uh?
You might like to ask him "Dude, this is the top isn't it? Don't you think it's time to get a life now?", but you will find the answer to be "No!". He's tried that, it didn't work for him. I'm glad he tried, though, because his current user name is much shorter than the previous one. Just saying. Speaking of long usernames, I wonder if Oisín will also try this stunt at some point. What do you mean "Who?"
Sorry.. I babble.
Bottom line is: Niall is pretty awesome! Any band is lucky to have the support of someone so enthusiastic and kind. And any group of fans is lucky to have him in their midst. Face it, we're a wild bunch of people, we need someone to guide us in the direction of what is really important and to mend whatever we break.
I would like to end with a visual aid which will show that Niall has fingers in many pies (which I guess is a positive thing if you use it as a metaphor for making friends with us, which I was using it for).
Enjoy!
Here's Niall with most-missed boardie Jennie. They look a bit flushed
Here's Niall, Emma and I at Whelan's. Look how smily I am, must be because of who's standing next to me
Oh look! It's Niall and Aisling and one of the Holian's (sorry lovelies, none of you were tagged in that photo)
Niall (looking endearingly giddy) in his usual habitat: the Delorentos tour van! With if I am correct either Sexton's friend or Ross' brother
Ok, I'm a bit tired now of looking through Niall's facebook photos. And I'm starting to get depressed because he smiles so much and his girlfriend is so pretty.
I'm sorry I didn't find the one of him and David looking like complete morons at HMV, that was a good pic.
Let's have another round of "Yay! Niall!"'s and then leave it to the good man himself to close off this years ceremony.
Thank you thank you