'DERMOT O'Leary is proud of his strong Irish roots - but admits he sometimes "fails the sport test".
The Big Brother and SAS: Are You Tough Enough star is heading to the Wharf for a charity St Patrick's night party.
London-born Dermot said: "I was brought up in a very Irish way by my family, particularly by my father who was as Irish as they come."
"I'm very proud to be able to call myself Irish - though I sometimes fail the sports test when England are better than Ireland. I cheer particularly for England when they play cricket."
Life for the hard-working star is never dull.
In little over five years, the he has gone from a fledgling presenter on Channel 4's T4 to becoming one of the most recognisable and bankable faces on the box.
"I try not to let it faze me, but when you are on stage at the Brit Awards it makes you take a step back and think `wow, look at where I am'," said the 30-year-old presenter.
Dermot is eagerly awaiting his visit to Cabot Hall on Wednesday, March 10, for an Irish Ceili evening in aid of the South London charity Southwark Irish Pensioners Project - which cares for older, isolated Irish people who emigrated to London in the 1950s and find themselves poor and lonely in their senior years.
Dermot told The Wharf: "A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to win an Irish Post [Irish national newspaper] award and at the ceremony an elderly lady came up to me and we were chatting about her financial hardship in London.
"She said she was a member of this charity and a couple of months ago they gave me a call and invited me along to this event, which I was very happy to agree to." ....
Dermot is rarely off our screens, and can currently be seen presenting SAS Desert: Are You Tough Enough? on Sunday evenings on BBC2, in which Wharfer Rachel Nolan - of South Quay's Interfleet Technology - can be seen reaching the final four.
His recent "experiment" Shattered on Channel 4 - in which people were deprived of sleep for six days - sparked controversy over its treatment of the contestants.
Dermot said: "We were caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of the sleep deprivation, as we realised the necessity to give them one or two hours sleep a day.
"But critics then said we were not sticking to our original plan. It was an experiment and on that basis I think we succeeded, but it won't be an annual thing like Big Brother as
"It's the sort of thing that can only be done once - but we are thinking of doing a celebrity version." ...
icWharf, 25/02/04.
The Big Brother and SAS: Are You Tough Enough star is heading to the Wharf for a charity St Patrick's night party.
London-born Dermot said: "I was brought up in a very Irish way by my family, particularly by my father who was as Irish as they come."
"I'm very proud to be able to call myself Irish - though I sometimes fail the sports test when England are better than Ireland. I cheer particularly for England when they play cricket."
Life for the hard-working star is never dull.
In little over five years, the he has gone from a fledgling presenter on Channel 4's T4 to becoming one of the most recognisable and bankable faces on the box.
"I try not to let it faze me, but when you are on stage at the Brit Awards it makes you take a step back and think `wow, look at where I am'," said the 30-year-old presenter.
Dermot is eagerly awaiting his visit to Cabot Hall on Wednesday, March 10, for an Irish Ceili evening in aid of the South London charity Southwark Irish Pensioners Project - which cares for older, isolated Irish people who emigrated to London in the 1950s and find themselves poor and lonely in their senior years.
Dermot told The Wharf: "A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to win an Irish Post [Irish national newspaper] award and at the ceremony an elderly lady came up to me and we were chatting about her financial hardship in London.
"She said she was a member of this charity and a couple of months ago they gave me a call and invited me along to this event, which I was very happy to agree to." ....
Dermot is rarely off our screens, and can currently be seen presenting SAS Desert: Are You Tough Enough? on Sunday evenings on BBC2, in which Wharfer Rachel Nolan - of South Quay's Interfleet Technology - can be seen reaching the final four.
His recent "experiment" Shattered on Channel 4 - in which people were deprived of sleep for six days - sparked controversy over its treatment of the contestants.
Dermot said: "We were caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of the sleep deprivation, as we realised the necessity to give them one or two hours sleep a day.
"But critics then said we were not sticking to our original plan. It was an experiment and on that basis I think we succeeded, but it won't be an annual thing like Big Brother as
"It's the sort of thing that can only be done once - but we are thinking of doing a celebrity version." ...
icWharf, 25/02/04.
