SMALL PRINT:Tonight, One Direction hit the O2 in Dublin before heading to Belfast to perform at the Waterfront Hall on Wednesday and Thursday evening, on a sell-out trio of Irish concert dates.
As one of the biggest boybands in the UK and Ireland – they formed on The X Factor– you could be forgiven for not knowing that much about them if you're under the age of 20.
But never fear, our guide to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About One Direction But Were Afraid to Ask should help you out.
There are five of them; Niall (from Mullingar), Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis.
Harry (the one with the enviable hair) is somewhat controversially dating television presenter Caroline Flack. She’s 32; he’s the youngest member of the group, aged 17.
So far they've published three books; One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), One Direction: The Official Annual 2012and Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction.
According to Amazon, their 2012 calendar was the best-selling calendar of all time.
North American domination may not be far away. They recently signed a record deal with Columbia, and their debut album is due out in the US and Canada in March.
Liam only has one kidney, and as a result doesn’t drink alcohol. He also has a phobia of spoons.
They nearly burned the X Factorhouse down while making pizza, badly.
When tickets for their first UK tour were made available, the entire tour sold out in 12 minutes.
The band are ambassadors for the Rays Of Sunshine charity, which grants wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses.
Their debut album, Up All Night,which was released last November, sold half a million copies in two months, and was also the fastest-selling debut album in the UK in 2011.
Some light relief in the North
IMAGES SURFACED online yesterday of the Northern Lights making a glowing appearance over the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal on Sunday night, just a fortnight after astronomers forecast that geomagnetic storms and coronal mass ejections (CME) from the sun would result in the Aurora Borealis being visible from Ireland’s northern shore.
For most people, viewing the Northern Lights is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So should you drop everything and head to Donegal to chance seeing it again? By signing up to the aurora alerts mailing list on DonegalSkies.comyou can at least see when they're coming. The latest display over Donegal was correctly forecast by a mail shot that went out to aurora hunters on January 19th and 22nd, saying a CME hitting the Earth's magnetic field could create possible viewing opportunities of the Northern Lights overnight on Sunday to early Monday morning.
Softservenews.comprovides information on the Kp levels of geomagnetic storms. Kp is a measure of the average of geomagnetic potential. The higher the Kp level (six or more), the stronger the geomagnetic storm is, and the more likely you are to see aurora displays.
DonegalSkies says it’s not advisable to travel long distances to try to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights as the phenomenon is unpredictable and viewing opportunities can be disrupted by cloud, which we have plenty of. Also, because Ireland is such a small area, the Northern Lights could be viewable in other parts of the country.
If you’re in the right area, a dark viewing spot with a clear and large view of the northern horizon is the best way to view the aurora, according to DonegalSkies. You should be looking for white domes of light that may contain some green or red beams. These come out especially well in long-exposure photographs.
