Fair play to you, Daniel - you're human, after all!

(From Irish Independent)

by Lise Hand

The puns were flying when Germaine Met Danny on the telly this week. 'Sugar Coating Vanishes As Singer Seethes'; 'Dan Flips over Bitter Attack on Pancaking Skills', cheered the headlines. Could it possibly be true that a man who wouldn't say boo to a goose, said yah boo sucks to a fearsome feminist?

It's a measure of the iron grip he has on his own image, that a brief outbreak of tetchiness by Daniel O'Donnell should cause such astonishment. The incident, which happened during filming for Miriam O'Callaghan's upcoming chatshow, wasn't even a proper barney by normal standards.

While talking at length about his relationship with his wife, Majella, the entertainer spotted in the monitor fellow guest Germaine Greer pulling derisive faces behind his back. "Do you have a problem with what I'm saying?" he asked her stonily. But as he continued to discuss his missus, the feisty feminist wrinkled her nose in distaste. Once again, the singer confronted her: "Do you find what I'm saying funny?"

Although he never raised his voice, O'Donnell may as well have unleashed a string of curses and flung his chair against the studio wall, such was the unprecedented spectacle of seeing him in a bit of a snot. It was akin to witnessing a Teletubby going postal.

In a career that has spanned over 20 years, the 44-year-old Donegal man has kept constant vigil over his public image, and has been spectacularly successful in promulgating his Head Boy identity known as Wee Daniel.