Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne, Jr. is an Irish singer-songwriter, radio and
TV presenter, dancer and former semi-professional footballer, best known
for being a member of Irish music band Westlife; he was the band's oldest
member. Before his music career, he played professional football,
representing Republic of Ireland at several junior levels. Since then he has
had a successful TV presenting career. His wife Georgina is the daughter of
former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and they have twin sons called Rocco Bertie Byrne
and Jay Nicky Byrne and a daughter called Gia. On 7 September 2012, it was
announced that Byrne would be a contestant for the tenth series of
Strictly Come Dancing. He was ranked number two on Ireland's Sexiest Man of
2014. Career
= Football = Byrne was a footballer and played for
Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys in North Dublin. He became a professional player,
and joined Leeds United as a goalkeeper in 1995, and was a squad member of the
FA Youth Cup winning team of 1997. He played for Leeds for two years, leaving
when his contract expired in June 1997. He played in a reserve game for
Scarborough F.C. and in a trial game with Cambridge United before returning
to join Dublin club Shelbourne. He then signed for Cobh Ramblers playing 11
games, then St. Francis F.C., all in Ireland's League of Ireland.
On 14 May 2009 Byrne was a substitute for a Liverpool F.C. Legends XI that
played against an All Star XI in a Hillsborough Memorial match to mark the
20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. All the proceeds from the
match went to the Marina Dalglish appeal. He represented the Republic of
Ireland at U15, U16 and U18 levels. He is a fan of Celtic FC, and on 9 August
2011 played in a Celtic Legends XI at Celtic Park in front of a 54,000 crowd
against a Manchester Utd Legends team. Byrne participated in and won Soccer Aid
2014. He scored in the match, played at Old Trafford. He was the only
non-professional player to score in the match. The Rest of the World team won
the game 4-2. = Music =
In June 1998, Byrne attended an audition for new Irish boyband, where Boyzone
manager Louis Walsh approached him to join his new venture, Westlife. Byrne
joined Westlife along with Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian
McFadden. Byrne revealed in Westlife: Our Story that he had wanted to change
the name of the band to West High; but the others preferred Westlife. With
Westlife, Byrne has had 25 top ten UK singles, 14 of which, were number one, 7
number one albums and has sold in excess of over 45 million records worldwide. It
is certified that Westlife have sold 20.2 million records and videos in the
UK across their 14-year career – 6.8 million singles, 11.9 million albums and
1.5 million videos. Byrne also had a number one single in Ireland in 2002,
alongside the Republic of Ireland national football team and Dustin the
Turkey with the Irish 2002 FIFA World Cup anthem, "Here Come The Good Times".
He also co-wrote many of Westlife '​s songs.
= Presenting = In 2002, Byrne guest-hosted an edition
of CD:UK with Cat Deeley. Byrne hosted the closing ceremony of the
Special Olympics live from Dublin's Croke Park in front of 80,000
spectators. Throughout the years, Byrne has appeared
on Children in Need and Comic Relief several times. In 2001, he co-hosted
Children in Need live from Belfast and in 2011 and co-hosted a BBC Radio 2
radio special with Patrick Kielty for the cause.
Byrne has narrated stage shows such as The Snowman Christmas Special and the
Picture of You documentary dedicated to former Boyzone member Stephen Gately who
died on 10 October 2009. Byrne has also hosted the Cheerios
ChildLine Concert, a record, seven times, which was broadcast on RTÉ2, and
in more recent years TV3. In addition, Byrne presented several
editions of the Celebrity Sunday radio programme on RTÉ 2fm in 2010. Listeners
tuned in from as far and wide as Mexico, Chile, the United Kingdom, Philippines
and Indonesia. The fourth and final edition of the programme, broadcast on
14 February 2010, trended worldwide on Twitter. FM104 publicly offered him a
job the day Westlife announced their split.
In October 2012, Byrne hosted the RTÉ reality TV show Football's Next Star.
The series followed ten young hopefuls competing for a chance to win a place
with Celtic Football Club's youth squad. In May 2013, 2014 and 2015, Byrne
presented the Irish votes at the Eurovision Song Contest. . He also
co-hosted the short-lived TV talent show The Hit on RTÉ One along with Aidan
Power. On 4 February 2014, Byrne signed a
contract with RTÉ 2fm to host a new weekday show from 11am to 2pm.
In January 2015, Byrne started hosting the new weekly National Lottery game
shown, The Million Euro Challenge on RTE 1, although the show was axed that July.
Personal life Byrne was born to parents Yvonne and
Nicholas. He has an older sister, Gillian, and a younger brother, Adam.
Byrne married his teenage sweetheart Georgina Ahern, whom he met when they
were about 12 years old. The two were married on 5 August 2003 at the Wicklow
Register Office, Wicklow, County Wicklow. The civil ceremony was followed
by a church blessing on 9 August at the Roman Catholic Church of St Pierre et St
Paul in Gallardon, Eure-et-Loir, France and a reception at the nearby 16th
century Château d'Esclimont. Georgina gave birth to fraternal twin sons, Jay
and Rocco, on 20 April 2007, born eight weeks prematurely. The children were
baptised on 15 July 2007 in the Saint Sylvester Roman Catholic Church in
Malahide, County Dublin. On 29 April 2013, Byrne announced on his Twitter
page that he and his wife Georgina were expecting their third child, and on
Irish television it was announced that the baby was due around Halloween.
Daughter Gia was born on 23 October 2013.
Godparents for the children are Byrne's sister Gillian Byrne and her husband
Mark Gallagher and Georgina's sister Cecelia Ahern and Byrne's brother Adam
McGarry Byrne. Byrne's father, Nikki Byrne Sr., died on 3 November 2009, from
a heart attack. Westlife's promotional tour of the UK was cancelled as Byrne
flew to Dublin to be with his family. Byrne Sr. sang part-time on Dublin's
cabaret and karaoke scene and was presented with a Harley-Davidson
motorbike by his son on his sixtieth birthday party the year before his
death. = Philanthropy =
In 2010, Byrne and his family organised the 'Nikki Byrne Twilight Ball', a
fundraising event, in memory of their father who died in November 2009. The
event raised over €200,000 and completely funded a television and radio
heart attack awareness campaign in connection with 'The Irish Heart
Foundation'. Byrne, and his wife Georgina, are keen supporters of the
Irish Premature Babies charity. Byrne also supports UNICEF and has taken part
in several UNICEF Campaigns, such as the UNICEF 'Euro for Zero' campaign where
the goal was to raise as much money as possible in November 2010 for Child
Survival Programmes. References
External links Official website