Ireland has given the world many things—Lord of the Dance, colcannon (it’s delicious), Cillian Murphy, the inspiration for many of Nora Roberts’s novels, but today, I must praise the Emerald Isle’s Donie O’Sullivan, the CNN reporter whose calm and clear-eyed reporting from the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday night captivated not only me, but millions around the world and in his country of birth. Donie, you meaty Irish snack, I salute you!
O’Sullivan has been with CNN for almost five years, but I first encountered him on Wednesday night as I sat on my couch and mainlined cable news. On a deeply dark and truly fucked up day, O’Sullivan’s on the ground reporting, delivered in his lilting voice, was poised and cut straight to the point. Who is this man with this very large head, I wondered.
“I am obsessed with Donie,” I wrote my colleagues in our Slack channel.
Others also noticed his poise, employing references that I don’t quite understand but whose spirit and rightness I feel deep in my soul:
Donie’s parents are incredibly proud of their son, as they should be. In a truly delightful video, O’Sullivan’s parents shared how they, like me, watched him on CNN “all evening.” “He kept the head going, so he was good,” his mom said. Admittedly, I couldn’t understand a single word coming out of his dad’s mouth, but his mom shared a charming story about Donie’s childhood ambitions to be a “presenter” and had a little laugh about Donie’s newfound fame on social media.
Donie, I know you’re busy these days, but call me!