Speaking to Ryan about the outpouring of love he’s received since his now-famous news segment aired during the week, Donie O’Sullivan said the whole thing has definitely made him feel “much closer to home”.
One of the most anticipated guests on last night’s Late Late Show, CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan has quickly become the nation’s favourite Kerryman.
Making headlines for his “calm head in a crisis” as Tubs put it, Donie has become somewhat of an overnight sensation – with people lavishing praise on him for his reporting on the chaos that broke out at Capitol hill during the week.
Giving a bit of context of what happened in the run-up to the report, Donie explained:
“We got here early on Wednesday morning and we were actually up by the White House where Trump was doing his speech.
“There was thousands of Trump supporters and I was out there just shooting a taped piece, to interview some of the supporters and talk about why they were here and the conspiracy theories they believe in and things like that – and then we marched down with them from the White House.”
Saying that the whole thing happened very suddenly, Donie later added:
“They seemed to have very little resistance from the police and it was quite surreal.”
Cementing his status as one of the country’s new national treasures, Irish Twitter has had a lot of complimentary things to say about the Kerryman ever since.
https://twitter.com/heyadaithi/status/1347669895471882241
Fair emotional watching people getting the vaccine on #LateLateShow but then @donie arrived on screen casually chatting about @marklittlenews & @samanthabarry &I literally swelled with pride with how small our island is!😭Imagine his sisters,they must be SO PROUD!Hon Donie boi!🇮🇪
— Shannon Forrest (@waittilitellya) January 8, 2021
.@donie is such a likeable lad. #LateLateShow
— Maureen Catterson (@MoCatterson) January 8, 2021
What a great reporter @donie is. And clearly a lovely guy. #LateLateShow
— Donal O’Keeffe (@Donal_OKeeffe) January 8, 2021
My dad call me downstairs and says “Sarah, your man is on” and he was right @donie an inspiration to a hopeful leaving cert student who dreams of working at @CNN 💚💛 #LateLateShow pic.twitter.com/1Hl6iVUxrB
— Sarah Lawlor (@sarahlawl13) January 8, 2021
@donie is a breath of fresh air. @CNN promote this young man he is doing amazing work. We are proud of him here in #Ireland. #LateLateShow
— Bernadette Phillips (@BPhillipsWriter) January 8, 2021
Asking Donie if he’s usually seen as “the enemy” when he’s in the middle of a throng of Trump supporters, Donie said that his Irish accent tends to help people soften to him.
“According to them, we’re the traitors – the people trying to tell the truth and tell the story are the traitors. I’ve been going to a lot of rallies and meeting a lot of Trump supporters, many folks who are very polite but maybe misguided.
“We do, we go out there and we tell folks that we’re with CNN and they don’t normally tend to like that but then I tell them I’m from Ireland or they hear my Irish accent and they’re normally intrigued and are more open to talking to me I think.”
"This experience this week has made me feel much closer to home for sure"
Everyone's new favourite Kerryman @donie tells Ryan about his new-found twitter fame and how he went from Cahersiveen to @CNN.#LateLate pic.twitter.com/KnDVcc9nMq
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 8, 2021
As one Twitter user put it – “Maith an fear, Donie!”
