Clare’s O’Donnell unfazed by hype

Shane O’Donnell can’t quite decide what the most unnerving part of the last few weeks was; the few minutes before appearing on The Late Late Show, hearing that Louis Walsh wanted his phone number or the request to speak to a bunch of U16 players in far off Wexford.

What the 19-year-old Clare prodigy can say for certain is that, right now, his is a life less ordinary.

In the space of 70 minutes on a Saturday evening in late September — at Cork’s expense — he catapulted himself into the nation’s consciousness with an incredible feat of All-Ireland hurling final goalscoring.