{"id":349054,"date":"2026-03-16T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:32:10","slug":"watch-portlaoise-footballer-the-latest-laois-person-to-appear-on-rte-tv-show-first-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349054\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Portlaoise footballer the latest Laois person to appear on RTE TV show First Dates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.laoistoday.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mick-OConnell-First-Dates-Ireland.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&amp;ssl=1\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- alt=\"\" title=\"Mick O'Connell First Dates Ireland\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mick-OConnell-First-Dates-Ireland.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The latest series of First Dates Ireland is in full swing and this week is set to feature another Laois person.\n<\/p>\n<p>Portlaoise footballer, Michael O\u2019Connell, is looking for love and set to appear on the RTE 2 show at 9.30pm on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old nurse is paired with fellow healthcare professional Jessica and we will have to tune in to see if sparks.\n<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connell is the third Laois person to appear on this series of the dating show.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"Mzg4NiwzMCw2MA==\" href=\"https:\/\/laoisgaa.ie\/laois-monster-draw\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-Laois-GAA-County-Draw-MPU.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Caoimhe Moore from Portlaoise, who is training to be a secondary school teacher, was on last week\u2019s show where she was paired with Will from Leixlip.\n<\/p>\n<p>Stradbally\u2019s Cavan Dunne, who works in hospitality, was also on last week\u2019s episode.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"Mzg5NCwzMSw2MA==\" href=\"hhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ParkRatheniska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Park-Ratheniska-GAA-ad-2.jpg.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old was paired with Polish bus driver Marcin but unfortunately they did not hit it off romantically.\n<\/p>\n<p>Check out the clip of this week\u2019s episode below:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"Mzg4Niw1Myw2MA==\" href=\"https:\/\/laoisgaa.ie\/laois-monster-draw\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-Laois-GAA-County-Draw-MPU.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.laoistoday.ie\/2026\/03\/15\/glory-for-katelyn-as-she-claims-dancing-with-the-stars-title\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Glory for Katelyn as she claims Dancing With The Stars title<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"MjAzNSw2Niw2MA==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.laoispartnership.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Current-Logo-Strip.png\"\/><\/a>        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest series of First Dates Ireland is in full swing and this week is set to feature&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,135990,61,60,158979,282],"class_list":["post-349054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-first-dates-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-oconnell","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}