The young West Cork truck driver is a bit dumbfounded by his sudden fame
11:49, 15 Apr 2026Updated 13:34, 15 Apr 2026
Mark O’Connell at the Whitegate fuel protests
Cork’s newly minted heart-throb, truck driver Mark O’Connell, has joked that he might be single soon enough – that’s if his viral fame continues.
The young West Cork man gave Ireland a bit of craic amongst all of the stress and tension during last week’s fuel protests, when clips of him speaking to RTE News and Virgin Media suddenly started a firestorm of social media comments about ‘the good-looking lad at the protests’. Mark also talked to CorkBeo during our rolling live coverage from the refinery.
Now, the young truck driver who works for the family business in West Cork is fending off all kinds of interest on his social media, including his Instagram. Speaking to the popular Breakfast With KC show on Cork’s Red FM on Wednesday, the young West Cork man joked with the presenters that he doesn’t know how long his girlfriend will stick around if his new fans keep fawning over him.
Easy-going Mark joked, “I have a girlfriend, but I don’t know how long she will be there for now if this keeps going!”
On his sudden fame, Mark told presenters: “I think the whole thing is hilarious, any one of those videos I was up on, I would say I look homeless. I hadn’t slept in days, and I was wearing clothes I probably shouldn’t have been wearing.”
The women of Ireland were smitten with Mark and ‘fell in love’ with his looks as he was interviewed by many news outlets across the country, including well-known social media comedian Faye Shortt, who shared a hilarious video reacting to the clips of Mark.
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According to more than a few comments on social media, part of Mark’s appeal was that he looked like a friendly, chilled-out guy, just speaking clearly about why he was involved at Whitegate, as tensions all around him started to climb in the hours before the protest finally ended.
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