On Monday night, the nation trained its eyes on Virgin Media 2 as Sean Fitzgerald (aka Fitzy ), the Barna man, who lined out at full-back for Galway, entered the cauldron that is the Love Island villa.
A far cry from Croke Park, a far cry from coming face to face with David Clifford, but no less daunting. Fitzy against pearly white veneers, six-packs, and cheesy chat-up lines. He has more than held his own.
Those familiar with Love Island would have expected the traditional ‘coupling up’ segment that has become synonymous with the show’s opening night. But in a shocking twist, host Maya Jama dropped the bomb that contestants must work out their couplings between themselves.
Eager beavers were quick to speak up, claiming couples for their own. Fitzy exercised the patience and expert reading of the game that you would associate with some of the country’s top full-backs. He found himself in the last two hunks to couple up, but here’s the catch - both remaining women wanted him.
Torn between two women, he chose 28-year-old detective Lola over 21-year-old quantity surveyor and DJ Robyn. However, things turned when Robyn pulled him for a chat and he was able to see her freckles up close, which was apparently a game changer for him. That, and the scouse accent.
She asks him outright why he chose Lola instead of her. But our Fitzy doesn’t crumble under pressure - he explains that Lola just gave him more eye contact. Makes sense, he was never one to take his eye off the ball. Robyn loves his muscles, called him a “natural goddess”.
Fitzy closed off his man-of-the-match Love Island debut with having to admit to Robyn his bleached blonde buzz was not natural, shutting down fellow islander Lorenzo who greeted him with a “’top o’ the mornin’” by saying “oh for f*** sake” and telling him “nobody says that” in Ireland, and educating Robyn on the meaning of ‘spoofer’. All on night one. Take a bow, son.
For Tuesday night’s episode, Fitzy was demoted to the bench.
Bombshells George and Yasmin entered the villa with the knowledge they had 24 hours before they would dump a boy and a girl from the villa.
Things didn’t look good for the Barna man at the beginning. George made no secret of his fancying of Lola and Yasmin was indicating her desire to get to know everyone but him and Sam. George and Lola had a good conversation, Fitzy’s fate is up in the air.
A game of dares in the villa revealed some hope that the Galwegian could be safe. George elected to kiss two other girls and leave Lola high and dry. Afterwards, he put his eggs in Robyn’s basket in asking her to abandon her current couple and spend the night with him.
Fitzy may have started the game as a substitute but that didn’t mean he couldn’t come on and land a last minute dagger.
His dare was to challenge an islander to a dance-off. Cometh the hour, cometh the worm. A perfectly executed worm made lightwork of Lorenzo’s stiff hips.
As the girls had their post-dare debrief, it was universally agreed that Fitzy was a “dark horse”, prompting Lola, in a roundabout way, to tell her fellow islanders to back off and reveal she is smitten. The Galway number three seems to have got up for the high ball and called the mark.
As night two comes to an end, the islanders are all snug up in bed. But we’re left with Fitzy and Lola having a bit of a smooch under the covers. That’s the Love Island for ‘things are going pretty well’.
As we go to print on Wednesday afternoon, Fitzy’s Love Island status hangs in the balance. We just have to hope George doesn’t hand him his marching orders.
