Video: Star's identity slips through the cracks
Falling down: This unlucky pedestrian became an internet superstar after his fall clocked up a million hits on YouTube
The Big Freeze has created the internet's latest celebrity, but the search for his actual identity outlasted the cold snap.
A young man who was filmed by RTE News slipping in dramatic fashion on ice in Dublin has become an internet phenomenon, with nearly one million people viewing his heavy fall on YouTube since it was posted on January 8.
RTE was filming 'vox pops' about the hazardous conditions on Dublin's Church Street, close to the Four Courts, when a man is seen rounding a corner and slipping on the glassy ice before crashing to the pavement and exclaiming: "Oh s***".
A spokeswoman for RTE stated that they checked after the incident if the man was alright and while they did not get the unlucky pedestrian's details they would be delighted if he got in touch to discuss his new-found fame.
A number of Facebook groups have been established to try and identify the 'Ice Fall Guy', with numerous members of the social networking site claiming to be the Internet star. However the man in question, has been identified as being from being from Navan, Co Meath. A dedicated Facebook site titled 'We have found the RTE fall guy' has been set up with a link to his own personal page.
The page runs under the tagline: "He thought he could hide but his status update has given him away."
The plight of the Big Freeze Faller has gone international with newspapers in the UK, Turkey and the US reporting on it. On Friday, a Canadian television station requested the footage from RTE.
Perhaps when the man goes public he can recount his treacherous tale -- just like the 6,000 members of the Facebook group entitled 'I fell on my arse in the big freeze of 2009-2010'.
- Eoin Hahessy
Originally published in
