Dónal Breathnach isn’t sure about ‘new-found-fame,’ he’s yet to experience that apparently.
But one thing he can’t deny is that it’s caused a bit of a stir. Given the people of An Rinn something to talk about.
Ring is an idyllic sort of a place on Waterford’s coast-line, just south of Dungarvan. Think small shops, comfy pubs, stone walls and you’re on the right road.
Time moves slow there, everyone knows what everyone else had for breakfast and who they’ll have for tea.
So when one of their favourite sons is on the television, boil the kettle, sit down, strap yourself in, this is big news.
Dónal Breathnach laughs. He’s glad that, when he watched the first episode of Virgin Media’s Grá ar an Trá dating programme, of which he is taking part in, that he did so with a bunch of friends.
“That generates a bit of banter,” he laughs.
“When you are doing a show like this,” he says, “you are putting yourself in the firing line to some degree.
“There have definitely been a few hairy moments so far… but when you see the lighter side, it’s better. It’s all been good-spirited and wholesome thankfully.”
Donal Breathnach in action for DCU’s Fitzgibbon Cup hurling team.
If this is the Gaeltachts’ answer to Love Island then this man is a budding Greg O’Shea. Replace Casa Amor with Dunmore east, where the show was filmed and, as a Gaeilgeoir from Waterford, call off the search, he was absolutely made for it.
Like all Gaeilgeoirí, he’s very proud of his native tongue and getting the opportunity to spread it was a big thing for him.
“When you’re from the Gaeltacht, there’s an untold duty, almost, to go and promote the language, and it seemed like a good way of doing that.”
“I was in as a múinteoir, as a fluent speaker, so I was then paired with a foghlaimeoir.”
“I come from a family of teachers, there are nine teachers in my family so even though I didn’t go down that path, it was in me in some way!”
But while he’s working away up in Dublin, living life at a faster pace in the big smoke, there’s only so long you can stay away for.
As a dual player with An Rinn’s hurling and football teams, the ribbing and the slagging reached a peak in the sanctuary of their team huddles and WhatsApps.
“I would have told my close friends that I was doing it.
“But a lot of people wouldn’t have realised.
“So over the last couple of weeks, between friends at home and team-mates, it’s generated a lot of banter at my expense.
“Even in the WhatsApp, the boys are all chiming in at different stages, it’s very funny.”
Indeed, Breathnach himself has always been something of a trailblazer for An Rinn.
Of the three Waterford intermediate hurling championships they’ve won, he’s played a part in two, scoring 0-14 from midfield in their most recent county final victory in 2017.
Having been called into the Waterford senior panel by Michael Ryan, in 2012, at 18, he became one of the first players from the club to play senior championship hurling for the county.
He dropped off the inter-county tread-mill after three years before going travelling.
“Michael (Ryan) was very good to me,” says Breathnach.
“He gave me my chance and I still appreciate what he did for me, bringing me in. No more so than Derek McGrath, who was also a brilliant man-manager.
“My decision to walk away was nothing to do with management. It was a completely personal decision.
“A lot of us made the grade from our minor team. Myself, Jamie Barron, Jake Dillon and Gavin O’Brien.
“I was on the panel for three years but only played one senior championship game, so I was very much on the periphery.
“We won the League in 2015 and it was after that, it was becoming apparent I wasn’t in the picture so I went off then to go playing in the states. I went to San Fran in the summer of 2015. I was half down in the dumps after leaving Waterford but the San Francisco experience completely re-invigorated me again.”
When he came back, he played football for the county, and enjoyed it hugely.
“I came back in 2017 then and ended up playing football for the year. Again, it was one of the most enjoyable years of GAA that I ever played. It was nice to be playing week-in-week-out, it was a really fun experience.”
Having taken a year out last year to go travelling, CLG Na Rinne had to do without him for the first time in more than a decade, he returned this year and now has a county preliminary football quarter final to look forward to.
“I felt like I’d a lot of miles on the clock. I’d been hurling flat out since I was 18, without a break.
“But he bit of travelling refreshed my mind and I came back then, and I was hungry for more.
“We were disappointed to lose at the semi-final stages of the intermediate hurling but we’re looking forward to the football now. Hopefully we can go a bit further in that.”
But first there’s the small matter of Grá ar an trá. It’s the talk of the town in Ring…
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