Niall might live in London now when he’s not touring the world with 1D, but Ireland will always be his home. He was so happy when Up All Night was released in Ireland as it meant his family could walk into any record shop and pick up an album of his music. It was something he had wanted for such a long time.
Niall auditioned for The X Factor at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin.
It meant the world to him when Up All Night charted at number one in Ireland – it only made number two in the UK. At the time, Niall had no idea that it would end up being released worldwide and would be number one in America, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden and many more countries.
The first single One Direction released was ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ and it was number one in Ireland, the UK, US and Mexico, number two in New Zealand, number three in Japan, number seven in Australia and Canada, and did well in other countries too. Liam said at the time that the boys felt humbled to have ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ do so well, telling BBC Radio 1, ‘We have an incredible team of people around us who have helped us achieve this. Above all, we would like to thank our fans. We owe all our success to them.’
The Up All Night Tour might have been to the UK, America, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, but Niall’s favourite performance has to be their show in Dublin. He tweeted in the lead-up to the concert, ‘IRELAND we are coming … been waiting for this day all my life!’ and ‘I cannot wait! Lets pull the roof off the O2 tomorrow night!’
On the morning of the show, he tweeted, ‘Today is a very special day for me! I literally cannot wait! #1DinDublin’.
After the show, he tweeted, ‘Ireland! Absolutely incredible is an understatement! Thank you for a lovely welcome home! Had goosebumps all night and a tear in my eye!’
He then added, ‘#Irishandproud small nation but we can sure make a hell of a lot of noise! Love you all! Dream come true.’
One Direction have millions of fans around the world from virtually every country, but Niall would like to see more boys liking their music. He told Tumblr’s Storyboard blog, ‘We want to see more boy fans, as seeing them in the crowd is cool … it’s 90 per cent girls, but we want to expand our fan base. We want all people to like us.’
Liam explained that the whole group are very grateful to every fan that goes out, buys tickets to their concerts, and supports them. ‘It’s very flattering obviously as we can see how much they care for us,’ he said. ‘We just hope they’re crying tears of joy! None of us could obviously ever have imagined this just two years ago. I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming to be honest.’
Niall struggles to cope when he gets surrounded by hundreds of fans. His dad Bobby told the Mirror, ‘There are hordes of young girls around him, and not much room to breathe anywhere. He says it can be frightening. Coming out of airports and girls crowding around their cars, he’s started to get really claustrophobic.’
Despite Niall coming from Ireland, Irish Directioners haven’t had many opportunities to meet the band. In 2011, Niall only spent 30 days in his home country. Superfan Grainne explains, ‘People seem to think just because Niall is from here that we get a lot of meet-and-greets, signings, concerts, visits, but this isn’t the case. We’ve had one signing and a few fans were selected to meet the boys and get their album signed. The boys only did one concert for the Up All Night Tour and I sadly didn’t get tickets. I am proud to call myself a Directioner but it is very hard to always be so ecstatic that the boys are getting big all around the world because it means small countries like Ireland will get less visits than they already have, which is very little.’
Rebecca is 17 and from Dublin. She has met the boys lots of times. The first time was on 19 August 2011 when they were in Dublin promoting ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ at different radio stations. She followed them around as they went to Spin 1038, FM104, 98FM and Q102, and, finally, after waiting 15 hours to speak to them, she managed to. They chatted about the single and exchanged pleasantries.
‘Three days later they came back to Dublin for the wedding of their tour manager Paul,’ Rebecca reveals. ‘Nobody knew of this except me and a few friends, so we went to the airport to meet them. We got to spend a good while with them, taking pictures, talking and joking. This was 22 August and it was probably the best day of my life.
‘Thirdly, after camping for two whole days, we got wristbands to meet them on 19 November 2011 in Clare Hall Shopping Centre. They had signings for their album Up All Night. It was well worth the wait and queuing because they’re genuinely the nicest boys ever. I also gave Harry a Christmas stocking with the words ‘Caroline Flack’ on the front as a joke, back when the rumours of them first started. Everyone was laughing about it, even Harry, and that night he tweeted about the day at the signing, also saying ‘PS thanks for my stocking.xx’. That honestly made my life and Harry Styles is probably the nicest person you will ever come across in your life.
‘On 26 November 2011, they were back in Dublin for an interview on The Late Late Show. I was in Dublin City with my school year that day because we were going to the cinema, and we saw the boys on their bus in Temple Bar. I was unbelievably shocked but it was definitely a great surprise.’
While the boys were at Paul’s wedding, they took part in two Marryoke videos – check out the videos on YouTube; they are fantastic and really give you an insight into what it was like at the wedding. To see the videos, just go to YouTube and type in ‘Marryoke Paul and Clodagh’.
Jenn is 15 and from Limerick. She met Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis and Zayn on 19 November 2011 in Maynooth, Co. Kildare at a book and album signing. She gave Liam a gift bag filled with the band’s favourite sweets, she gave Zayn a pair of black earrings, and for her favourite member Niall she had a leprechaun badge. She also told Niall he was gorgeous and this made him blush!
Ciara is 15 and from Dublin. She is an Irish Directioner and is part of the 1D Irish Street Team: their Twitter account is @1DIrishSignings. Ciara and her friends Sally, Sorcha and Caoimhe, are campaigning for a signing over in Ireland. She has met the boys twice: the first time was outside the RTÉ Studios when the boys were on The Late Late Show, and the second was outside their hotel in Dublin before a concert. She says, ‘Sometimes the boys aren’t allowed to pose for fans, which is really disappointing. My advice for fans is to keep trying. If you are from Ireland, please follow us on Twitter and join our campaign.’