Irish dancer Connor reels in glory on SAS: Who Dares Win

Along with Keiran Lang, 25, the professional Irish dancer from Newtownards, Co Down, passed the SAS selection course in Sunday’s episode of the Channel 4 programme.

Series six of SAS: Who Dares Wins saw 21 men and women leave the comfort of their homes and head to Scotland for an unforgiving selection course including tasks built around abseiling, freezing water and chemical weapon attacks.

The final episode saw the seven remaining recruits face interrogations, sleep and food deprivation, and scaling a peak while carrying heavy weights.

After completing the tasks, Connor said: “Passing the course is hard to put into words, such an outpouring of emotions, I’m just over the moon after the most amazing experience but at the same time I feel massive relief because I put myself under so much pressure.

“I guess for me it was confirmation, backing up my beliefs about the mental and physical strength of Irish dancers and male dancers especially.

“I feel such pride and I’m so thankful to my family for the support throughout this journey and my life.

“I put so much into my preparation beforehand and I gave it my absolute all throughout the course.

“My sole focus was to do my family, my colleagues and the Irish dancing world proud and to put Irish dancing on the map, so hopefully I’ve done that.”

Connor, who has performed in the West End and on Broadway, said personal challenges drove him to success, after being taunted as a child for being an Irish dancer.

“Not for one second did I think about giving up.

“When it got really bad and I was at my lowest, I really thought about why I was there, why I was putting my body and mind through so much pain.

“I wanted to challenge the stereotypes and show that male dancers are strong, powerful and tough. I want to show any young male dancers, or anyone who does a sport or discipline that isn’t perceived as ‘manly’, you can be strong and overcome obstacles.”

Meanwhile, dental engineer Kieran, who lives in Cornwall, said passing the course is a “crazy” feeling.

“I had to keep it quiet for such a long time that now is my first chance to properly celebrate,” he added.

He said he thinks he passed the course as he is “not one to give in”.

“I’ll just dig deep and keep driving,” he said.

“On the first day I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked so I spent the next 10 days proving to myself and the DS why I belonged there.”