NOT so long ago in Ireland, few men admitted to being a single father and their progeny were often subjected to the stark choice of enforced adoption or the stigma of "illegitimacy". This week, we've seen Keith Duffy of Boyzone, his girlfriend, Lisa Smith, and their new baby son, Jordan photographed as the model family in the stiff poses of Hello! magazine's signature "royal" style.
And now that Keith's colleague, Micky, has also become an unmarried father (his daughter is called Hannah Jessica) fans have been showering the band with baby clothes and presents where once they would have sent love letters and items of intimate apparel. The fans couldn't be more pleased, but their mothers are worrying over a single question is Keith setting a good example?
"Thank God things have gone on a bit," he says. "There was a time I would have been the disgrace of the country. Ireland has broadened its mind and it needed to," Keith told us on Wednesday.
He feels Jordan will now help to keep him grounded in the real world. "He's given me a whole new direction in life," he says.
"I was getting a bit worried, wondering what's it all about. You're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms, seeing the same four walls. You could really go mad. And it's very lonely," he says. "Everybody you meet in this business is a shark."
Like many younger parents, Keith has found that having the four grandparents "100 per cent" behind himself and Lisa has made all the difference. Both grandmothers Ida Smith and Pat Duffy attended the birth and have been there ever since, offering practical support for Lisa and Jordan, who is the first grandchild on both sides of the family.
The band are currently on tour for a month at a time, although Keith says he tries to get home as often as he can, even if it means taking the last flight from London and returning there on the first flight in the morning. For this proud dad there's nothing worse than being away from home so long that he has to "listen to other people telling me about Jordan".