{"id":601094,"date":"2026-08-22T10:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601094\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T10:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:18:17","slug":"the-lads-were-all-buzzing-for-me-sean-fitzy-fitzgerald-on-leaving-galway-for-love-island-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601094\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The lads were all buzzing for me\u2019: Se\u00e1n \u2018Fitzy\u2019 Fitzgerald on leaving Galway for Love Island \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuam Stadium, last Saturday. The sky was grey and the weather was mild, the west-of-Ireland summer hanging on by its fingernails. Out on the pitch, Corofin were pulling away from Mountbellew-Moylough in the second round of the Galway championship. Up in the stand, Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald had his hoodie up around his ears and the drawstrings pulled tight against his cheeks. <\/p>\n

He got recognised anyway. Someone came over and asked for a picture and then someone else and then a few more. And just like that, Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald was Fitzy again \u2013 or, as he goes online, @Fitzy.007. The Galway<\/a> footballer. The primary school teacher. The social media star. But mostly, for now, the Love Island<\/a> hunk. No escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know why I thought this but I thought going to a club match might be a place where nobody would care. Like, Lola and I were in Liffey Valley there one of the days and we got stopped everywhere for pictures but you\u2019d nearly expect that. I thought going to see Corofin and Mountbellew, I\u2019d get away with it. But it\u2019s grand. It\u2019s what we signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u201d are him and Lola Deal, the English girl he met in the Love Island villa over the summer. For the countless readers who come to the Irish Times sports section thirsty for island gossip, the good news is they\u2019re very much still together, living back in his home house in Furbo, Co Galway<\/a>. The plan is to move to Dublin together in the next while but for now, it\u2019s Galway Bay and the Aran Islands and championship against Milltown next weekend.<\/p>\n

Bearna na Forbacha won their first game against Caltra and though Salthill-Knocknacarra hammered them last weekend, a win against Milltown would put them in a quarter-final. \u201cThat would be huge for us,\u201d Fitzgerald says. \u201cWe\u2019re the kings of the relegation final usually, so if we could get to a quarter-final, it would change that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Caltra game was his first time kicking a ball since playing Leitrim<\/a> in the Connacht championship in April. A week later, he got confirmation of his place in the Love Island villa. A week after that, Galway lost the Connacht final with him sitting in the stand with the rest of the Galway extended panel. Back at the hotel afterwards, P\u00e1draic Joyce gave him the nod and told the panel that Fitzy had some news.<\/p>\n

\"GalwayGalway manager P\u00e1draic Joyce reacted enthusiastically to Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald’s news about the possibility of going on Love Island. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cA few of them knew already and obviously the management knew. But it was great actually. P\u00e1draic started off making jokes about me but then he said, \u2018We\u2019re going to back Fitzy 100 per cent.\u2019 And the lads were all buzzing for me, they gave me a round of applause. But yeah. That was my last interaction with the Galway panel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce had known it was on the cards for a couple of months. The whole thing started half by accident. Fitzgerald has been a medium-sized noise on TikTok for a few years, posting videos about his life as a teacher and other bits and pieces. He made one in February and it wasn\u2019t, as most people assumed, an audition tape to join Love Island. Inadvertently though, that\u2019s what it ended up being.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video went viral and got half a million views in a day or something like that,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they actually rang me the next day, the Love Island producers, asking if I would have any interest in coming on the show. And I was like, \u2018Jesus, no, no, no, not at all. I was just taking the piss.\u2019 But then I thought to myself, \u2018Well, why are you even taking the call here? You must want to do it on some level.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they\u2019d set up an interview to talk about it properly so it was at that point that I knew I\u2019d have to talk to P\u00e1draic about it. Because if there was any chance I\u2019d be leaving the panel, I had to make sure it wasn\u2019t going to come as a shock to him. I rang him and told him, \u2018Look, nothing\u2019s set in stone, I don\u2019t know if this is going to happen at all but it might.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he was great. He burst out laughing first of all. \u2018F**k off! Love Island! No way!\u2019 He was actually just excited for me. He wasn\u2019t like, \u2018What the hell are you doing that for?\u2019 He was actually just proper excited, just buzzing for me. He was like, \u2018That\u2019s class. That\u2019s some opportunity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce told him to keep it quiet until they knew something more concrete. When championship came around, Fitzgerald played all 70 minutes of Galway\u2019s Connacht opener against Leitrim. The confirmation call came through the following week and both of them agreed he\u2019d stand aside for the Connacht final against Roscommon. <\/p>\n

\"SeánSe\u00e1n Fitzgerald’s involvement with the Galway footballers ended after the Connacht SFC semi-final victory against Leitrim, when his selection for Love Island was confirmed. Photograph: Joel Anderson\/ITV <\/p>\n

There was never a tug-of-war or even any real agonising. Here was a chance to do something fun. He was going to do it and the Galway management knew who they were dealing with. They weren\u2019t going to try and make him be someone he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald has been on the Galway panel since 2022, after being full back on the under-20 team that won the All-Ireland two years previously. He is not, as you might have guessed, a typical intercounty footballer \u2013 when he joined up to the senior set-up, he wasn\u2019t particularly au fait with how the season was laid out. \u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about championship structures or the league being first or the round-robins or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he was fast and strong and athletic and there\u2019s always room for someone like that in a county dressing room. He was fun and social as well, never taking himself too seriously. He had started doing bits and pieces on social media and every once in a while, his teammates would be horse-shoed around a phone, creasing up at his latest bit of nonsense. Everyone liked him, management included. In a long season, it never hurts to have someone around to cut through all the po-facedness.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he was no court jester either. He was as dedicated as the next guy. More so, even. His day job was in Scoil \u00dana Naofa in Crumlin, a DEIS school deep inside the south M50. Getting from there to training in Loughgeorge outside Claregalway twice a week was a five-hour round-trip. No journey for the half-committed, especially in that first year when he was struggling to break through.<\/p>\n

He got injured early on in 2022 but made it back to play in the Division Two league final. \u201cI was terrible,\u201d he says. \u201cMy worst ever game. I was slow and unsure of myself after the injury and Donie Smith made bits of me. So that meant I was on the extended panel for the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald stuck at it though. He went from not getting into a matchday 26 in the 2022 championship to making his full debut against Mayo in the preliminary quarter-final the following year. Galway lost by a point but Fitzgerald kept Aidan O\u2019Shea scoreless and made the GAA.ie Team of the Week. The following season, he was a mainstay of the Galway team that went to the All-Ireland final, playing every minute down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\"SeánSe\u00e1n Fitzgerald celebrates Galway’s victory against Mayo in the 2024 Connacht SFC final at Pearse Stadium, Galway. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

And yet, through it all, there was a part of Fitzgerald that felt a bit cowed by the intercounty game. With his club, he\u2019s expected to take the game to the opposition. To get on the ball, to go on a run, to get the whole thing moving. But with Galway, he often found himself going into his shell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I wasn\u2019t terrible, that I could have a good go at it. But like, I know this is probably not a good thing to be saying about yourself but I wouldn\u2019t put myself as a great player. I would say I\u2019m a very average county footballer. The David Cliffords, the Se\u00e1n Kellys, all these guys, I would put them way above me. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what made it easier for me to step aside this year. I wouldn\u2019t value myself as being very important. I actually didn\u2019t think it would make a difference to Galway\u2019s season whatsoever, whether I\u2019m there or not there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think another player could have gone in and done the same job I did. Personally, I don\u2019t think I add much to the team as such. I can do a job but you wouldn\u2019t be watching a game and thinking, \u2018Oh, Jeez, he\u2019s a great player\u2019. I just do the basics right, and I don\u2019t put much of a foot wrong, I\u2019m just solid and reliable. But I wouldn\u2019t be adding much at intercounty level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember watching back that All-Ireland final against Armagh and it was just lots of passing the ball, moving it on. If that was my club, I would have been taking on lads the whole time, just going for it. But with Galway, I just had that fear of doing the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

\"LolaLola Deal and Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald met in the Love Island villa this summer. Photograph: Jo Hale\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWatching back that game, I\u2019d have so many regrets that I didn\u2019t just do what I know I can do. It was fear of losing. I\u2019d be on the ball and I would be like, \u2018Give it to Shane [Walsh], he\u2019ll take the shots. Give it to Rob [Finnerty].\u201d<\/p>\n

People come in all shapes and makes. The guy who found himself conscious of doing the wrong thing in a game of football thought nothing of going in front of millions of people on television every night. Of making himself vulnerable and sincere, looking for a girlfriend with everyone watching. Of taking a career break from a teaching job he adores to see where the road takes him.<\/p>\n

And maybe it will take him nowhere. That\u2019s a possibility too. The schools go back this week and he\u2019ll be calling up to Scoil \u00dana Naofa soon to catch up with everyone there. He reckons he\u2019ll know by the New Year what he\u2019s going to do with himself but he definitely doesn\u2019t rule out being a teacher again. Or, for that matter, being a Galway footballer again.<\/p>\n

But for now, life is good. He jumped off a cliff and landed on a cloud, got himself a girl and had himself a laugh.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re 25, that all adds up to a pretty good summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuam Stadium, last Saturday. The sky was grey and the weather was mild, the west-of-Ireland summer hanging on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30883,93,61,60,1397],"class_list":["post-601094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-galway-gaa","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-love-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601094","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=601094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}