Big Brother Brian sends Eason's crowd wild

They were there in their hundreds, chanting his name like their young (and not so young) lives depended on it. They pushed and scrambled for the best vantage point, the one not blocked by the photographers awaiting the arrival.

They waited. And then they waited some more. And then, as if descending from some celestial higher plane of celebrity, his expensively clad legs were to be seen descending the escalator. The place erupted. He was here.

"Brian, Brian, Brian," they cheered, clutching cameras, notebooks, copies of the Big Brotherbook, sundry items of clothing and anything else that could be scribbled on to mark this momentous occasion.

An Eason's staff member described it as the "biggest thing since Beckham", estimating the numbers at "about a thousand".

For it was the triumphant return to Ireland of Brian Dowling, the Kildare air steward who won the £70,000 prize in Channel 4's Big Brother 2, catapulting himself to stardom in the process.

Crowds gather anxiously outside the Eason bookstore in Dublin

He seemed genuinely taken aback by the whole thing, shyly waving and appearing perplexed by the whole bouncer-media standoff developing in front of him.

Who knows what is in store for Brian - but a lame trot into C-list celebrity status seems unlikely. Elton John has described him as "a natural star, a real winner", and TV host Jerry Springer described him as "a revelation".

Not that he was the only "star" present. For he was accompanied by a fellow contestant, the glammed-up and blonde Penny Ellis.

Despite one sympathetic, yet half-hearted, "Penny, Penny" from one section of the crowd, which she graciously acknowledged, Penny certainly knew her place, for this was all about Brian. "I watched it 18 hours a day, every day," one middle-aged woman from Limerick enthused. "He gave me sooomuch pleasure and entertainment, I just had to come up and show my support".

Considering the level of obsession generated by the two series of Big Brother, this is not all that scary.