Rosie Dowling grabbed the phone the instant it rang at 3.30pm on Tuesday. It was local barman Ciarβn Kelly with the latest €4 Big Brother update. "He hasn't been nominated Rosie, he's not out yet," he cheered. The Dowling family celebrated and the village of Rathangan in Co Kildare breathed a sigh of relief as local hero Brian Dowling lived to survive one more week in the Big Brother house.
It's hard to believe that my former school friend Brian is a celebrity. Rathangan has finally got somebody to cheer for and we all recognise the Brian on screen as the real Brian. "He is himself in there; he is always messing; you never know when he is serious," says his mother Rosie.
Life was never boring in the Dowling household, say Brian's family - perhaps one reason why he was chosen from more than 50,000 applicants to star in this summer's Big Brother. Brian was always playing tricks. His mother recalls coming home to find him lying on the floor covered in blood with a poker nearby on the ground and his sister Valerie lying motionless. But as soon as Rosie walked in she smelled the tomato sauce. Brian knew the game was up when she burst out laughing.
The eldest with six sisters, Brian grew up in a small village in the heart of the bog of Allen, just inside the Kildare border. As is usual in Irish villages, pubs outnumber other amenities and Rathangan has a total of seven drinking establishments. One pub, the Millhouse, has a large banner outside declaring itself "Brian's official supporter's pub". Painted in the Kildare colours (white with black trim), the pub gets a good crowd in for Big Brother - and €4 is broadcast constantly. You will find the most senior of men and women watching attentively. Yes, Rathangan has the Big Brother bug. Barman Kelly is glued to it and keeps the Dowlings informed of Brian's antics as the family don't have €4 or the Internet.
"It's been great," says Rosie. "We have had great support from everyone." Recently, Michelle and her sisters have stayed home on Fridays as they couldn't hear properly with the crowds in the pub.
Joe Ralleigh, Brian's uncle, wears his nephew's name (on one of the pub's T-shirts) proudly on his back at the Kildare matches; he's at pains to point out that Brian is a Kildare man -some media outlets have claimed him as a Dub.
Brian's sister, Michelle, says Brian was fascinated with Big Brother last year. "He was thinking of applying last year but he didn't bother. He said, 'It will be me this time next year'." There is only 10 months between them; they started school together and made first Communion and Confirmation together.
I remember summer evenings when Bernie Kelly, Rhona Ennis, my sister and I would cycle to Dowlings, where Brian and Michelle joined us at Community Games' training in the football field. Brian was actually a fast runner, but he spent most of his time messing and throwing grass down people's backs, so he never got that gold in Mosney.
At one stage, Michelle and Brian shared part-time jobs. They would travel home from work in the chip shop at 4.30a.m. with only one bike between them, taking turns to sit on the crossbar and often ending up in the ditch.
Brian comes home regularly midweek, although the last time he was home was three or four weeks before entering the Big Brother house. Rosie says he rang home the night before he went into the Big Brother house, but the conversation was difficult as there was a bodyguard beside him. His youngest sister, Tara, misses her brother - he's also her godfather - and she misses the boxes of Skittles he brings her. His mother hopes that he will soon get his childhood teddies back, which he's had since he was six months old.
Maybe in school we had an inkling that Brian was going to be famous. Brian's uniform and hair were always immaculately groomed. He was an extrovert and nobody can deny he was loud - you could always hear him before you saw him, his voice ringing out at the end of the corridor, laughing, screaming, or even singing. He often had the teachers in stitches, and when Ms Doyle tried to tell him to keep it down she rarely failed to keep from grinning. In the annual school variety show he thrived under the spotlight in shows like Jesus Christ Superstar. His proud mother Rosie is not one bit surprised at Brian's leap to stardom. When he sets a target nothing will stop him achieving it, she says. "He said he was going holiday repping and we didn't believe him and he did it, and then he went air stewarding," grins Michelle.
On the first night of Big Brother, Brian announced he was gay. It may have been hard for him, growing up in rural Ireland and being gay, but Brian was accepted by everyone at school. He was a fun person to be around and he was never ridiculed or attacked. In fact, it was the opposite - he was always the centre of attention. Brian's sexuality was never a topic for discussion; it was never an issue.
As millions of people watch Brian under the glare of the cameras, life goes on for his family. "We still have to go to work and school," says Michelle. The telephone is constantly ringing with friends, neighbours and reporters all eager to discuss Big Brother.
Sometimes the girls feel like celebrities themselves: "Everyone keeps asking, 'are you Brian Dowling's sister?'" says Valerie.
Brian has had his name plastered across a 737 plane, has bared his bottom on live television, and his family were informed (by a newspaper) that he is a distant relation of George Clooney. What's next for Brian? His Ryanair job is there for him, but Michelle believes he will move on again. "Anything is possible with Brian at this stage," she says.
When that time draws near, Channel 4 will fly his family over to be with him. His mother, Rosie, wants to be there, but there is one problem. "I won't fly. I have never been on a plane," she says. Michelle, however, will not take no for an answer: "You are going Mammy, we will get you on that plane." Some small ones may be the order of the day.
If Brian wins the money, he has promised to spend it on a trip to Disneyland for his youngest sisters and to spoil his parents. No matter what happens from now on, Brian will always be a celebrity here in Rathangan. "He has brought the buzz to a sleepy village. In our eyes he is our brother and we are proud of him," says Michelle.
Big Brother is on Channel 4 nightly from Monday to Saturday