Brian McEvoy Brian McEvoy

THIS AFTERNOON, IN Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre, dozens of confused aul ones carrying their shopping bags milled through hordes of giddy 13-year-olds who had queued up behind a velvet rope, in the hopes of getting a selfie with a reality TV star.

One such aul one sidled up to me, asking, “Who’s that? She’s lovely, isn’t she?”

I turned around to an elderly woman on her tippy-toes, determined to get a good look at the blonde 22-year-old on the other side of the velvet rope.  I wasn’t sure whether it was worth trying to explain what Love Island was to her, because my grandparents certainly wouldn’t have a clue.

Brian McEvoy Brian McEvoy

“She’s off Love Island, on the telly” I told her, preparing to elaborate.

“Oh my God! Is it Olivia?” The woman asked. I was genuinely taken aback and amused by her sudden overt enthusiasm. I told her that it was Hayley, “Y’know, the one who went out with Eyal”, and before I knew it we were deep in conversation about who our favourites in Love Island are.

Since this year’s series began, this has happened to me countless times in various situations.

Everywhere I go, every time I meet a new person, I know that when there’s an awkward silence, it can easily be subdued by asking “Have you been watching Love Island?”

Even if the answer is no, the person I’m talking to will attempt to justify why they haven’t been watching it, or mention how they feel left out. Love Island is bringing a lot of people together. Even those who aren’t tuned in.

Brian McEvoy Brian McEvoy

The woman in Pavilions told me how happy she is for Dani and Jack, and how every single night she just wishes she could “give them a cuddle.” The chances that this woman and I would have interacted, for any reason other than our mutual obsession with Love Island, are pretty slim. Eventually, she bid me goodbye and headed off to Supervalu.

My full attention shifted back to the young woman beyond the velvet rope – Hayley Hughes. The 22-year-old was sitting down having a chat with Xposé’s Glenda Gilson about her time in the Love Island villa.

Glenda asked her about *that* Brexit conversation that went viral, before asking her to film an intro for their segment on this evening’s episode of Xposé.

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Glenda asked if Hayley could say something along the lines of “I’m Hayley from Love Island, and you’re watching Xposé.” Puzzled, Hayley asked Glenda to repeat the name of the show. “X-SPOSE-AY”, Glenda told her. Hayley gave it a go.

If you saw Hayley in action in the Love Island villa, you can probably imagine how that went. The pair of them repeated several noises that sounded similar to the word ‘Xposé’, before Hayley eventually got the hang of it. Then, they reached the next obstacle – it turned out Hayley wasn’t sure how to pronounce Glenda’s name.

Fascinated, I watched the smiley 22-year-old repeatedly say “GLEN-DA. GlennnDahh. Is that it?”

She really is pretty much the same in real life as she was on television. The only difference was that she’s roughly 5’5″ in heels, although the cameras in the villa would have you believe she was considerably taller.

I finally got a chance to sit down and chat with Hayley, and she was far friendlier than I expected her to be, considering that she was the villain of the house in her time on Love Island.

First up, we played a little game, where I asked her to try and guess what some Irish dating slang meant. You can watch that on our highlights on Instagram.

With every word I asked her to define, she took roughly ten seconds to let it sink in. You could see the cogs in her brain working as she carefully tried to guess what the word “beour” meant. However, she had a really good sense of humour about the whole thing. She’s not stupid, like many cynical viewers seem to want to believe she is.

In fact, when Glenda Gilson brought up the Brexit thing, Hayley made it clear that she had educated herself on the entire situation once she had left the house. When I spoke to her, I asked her how she felt about Piers Morgan’s attempts to belittle her on Good Morning Britain, for not knowing what Brexit was.

Do you know what? He’s really nice off camera – he was fairly lovely to me. I think he puts on that character while he’s on TV, but deep down, I think he really is a big fan of the show.

I decided to ask her a couple of her opinions on the show after this. You probably won’t be surprised by who she wants to win:

Jack and Dani. One hundred percent. Jack and Dani.

Hayley also said that if she could go back into the villa and couple up with someone new, she’d go for either Charlie, or “new Alex”. Not old Alex, anyway. I asked if she believes it’s time for old Alex to throw in the towel, and she said “time for what?” I told her what the term “throw in the towel” meant, and she replied:

I don’t think the one that he’s with now… I don’t think it’s going to work out. But who knows? Just don’t give up. But I know what you mean…

Brian McEvoy Brian McEvoy

We then spoke about her dramatic exit from the show. I asked her if she was surprised that people were angry that she refused to feign a romance with Eyal, and she said:

I’m one of them… I like to take things slow. I don’t like pressure. As soon as I came to that stage, I just didn’t really like it. You’ve got to remember, a day in there is like a week in the real world. You would know in two days if you wanted to progress or if you wanted to leave it. I didn’t have feelings for those boys, and I didn’t want to play a game to stay in. I didn’t really realise it was a game until I got out – and you’ve got to play the game to stay in.

True that. (See: Adam). Finally, I asked Hayley what the future holds for her. Will we be seeing her on television again?

Yeah, I’d love to go back on a TV show. Even a gameshow. I’d literally go on anything to do with TV. I want to push myself more into my acting, and things.

We can’t wait to see her on a celebrity special of The Weakest Link, come Red Nose Day. When I finished up, we took a few quick photos. A man sitting beside us, presumably her agent or security, offered to take it.

Not a chance, pal. Do you think I’m going to leave my angles at the mercy of a stranger when I’m sitting next to somebody who is attractive enough to go on Love Island? Thanks, but no thanks. So, we just took a selfie instead.

Kelly / Twitter Kelly / Twitter / Twitter

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