After a slow start, Irish audiences are falling in love with Love Island

After a slow start, it looks like Irish audiences are finally falling for this year’s Love Island installment.

igures released to Independent.ie revealed that more than 1.7 million viewers have watched the Virgin Media reality show since it first returned to our small screens a month ago.

To date, there have been more than 5.5 million streams on the station’s Player with series eight attracting an average of 204,000 viewers per night. This is a 7pc increase over last year’s show.

A special that aired on Monday 27 June was the best performing show among 15- to 34-year-olds in Ireland for the whole month.

There has been a great deal of interest in the show among Irish audiences since last Friday when it was confirmed that Ronan Keating’s son Jack (23 years old) would be coming to Casa Amor. He joins Dami Hope (26 years old), a senior microbiologist from Dublin, who is one of the Irish islanders competing for the dating show.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said they were “delighted with the show’s performance”, which will run for another month before the winning couple are crowned in early August.

Since first appearing on the show last Friday, Jack Keating and his famous family have dominated many dating show-related headlines.

He wasted very little time talking to Gemma Owen, daughter of former England soccer star Michael Owen, to tell her he also had a famous father. He shared a bed with contestant Tasha Ghouri when he tried to find a connection with one of the single women.

His mother Yvonne Connolly has said she is “so proud” of him and says he is “very brave” for putting himself out there. But she also pointed out on Instagram that there have been some negative comments on several social media sites.

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“A lot of people wish Jack good health and support him. It means a lot. My heart,” she said.

“Thank you so much for all your comments. All positive (can’t say the same for other platforms). “

Meanwhile, his father Ronan admitted that he was an “absolute mess” when he looked at him every night.

He talked to The One Show on the BBC about building her eldest son on the show.

“He has been on the shortlist for about six weeks now. We already knew he might be in. It was a week before the announcement and he said, “Tomorrow I’m flying to Spain,” he said.

He said Jack had been “very quiet” and seemed a bit nervous at Casa Amor, where he was competing with five other singles for the win over one of the island’s female residents.

“I hope he is okay. He has a big heart and he is a real softie. I worry for him in there along with all the others,” he said.