Niall Horan Facts

1. Niall Horan was born on 13th September 1993.

2. Just like his One Direction bandmate Liam, Niall is a Virgo. According to the star sign he is analytical, observant, helpful, reliable and precise.

3. Niall’s mum is called Maura Gallagher and his dad’s name is Bobby Horan.

4. Niall has an older brother called Greg. He’s 24-years-old.

5. Unfortunately Niall’s mum and dad split up when he was just five years old. He and Greg divided their time between the two homes but eventually they stayed with their dad Bobby in Mullingar, County Westmeath in Ireland.

6. Niall’s mum Muara remarried and lives in the nearby Edgeworthstown with her husband of seven years Chris.

7. Niall attended the Catholic secondary school Coláiste Mhuire in Mullingar.

8. Before secondary school, Niall attended St Kenny National School.

9. Niall’s ideal woman is Cheryl Cole and his man crush is Michael Bublé.

10. Niall’s nickname is Nialler. Makes sense!

11. On One Direction’s debut album ‘Up All Night’, Niall has about 1minute and 25 seconds of solos – the least out of all five members.

12. Niall sang Ne-Yo’s ‘So Sick’ in the X Factor first round and received glowing praise from Louis Walsh.

13. A big Oasis fan, Niall covered ‘Champagne Supernova’ at X Factor bootcamp.

14. Niall’s favourite colour is green. He also likes blue.

15. Niall says he’s only read one book in its entirety – the American classic ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.

16. Niall has a very bizarre good luck mascot – a pair of white socks. Erm, ok then! 

17. Niall supports English football club Derby County. After attending his first game aged four, throughout his childhood Niall regularly flew from Ireland to the UK to attend games.

18. In 2006 Niall was the Derby County mascot at an away game against Luton Town.

19. Niall is an accomplished guitar player and was a fervent follower of indie music growing up.

20. Just like Liam, Niall’s middle name is James.

21. In December 2011 Niall had transparent white braces fixed to his teeth.

22. Niall’s favourite song of all time is ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay.

23. Niall is the second youngest member of 1D – behind Harry.

24. In early 2010, months before his appearance on the X Factor, Niall supported Lloyd Daniels at the Academy 2 in Dublin. There are clips of his performance of Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ at the gig on YouTube. 

25. Niall is approximately 5 feet and 7 inches tall.

26. Niall says the best Christmas present he has ever received is his guitar.

27. One of Niall’s biggest idols is Michael Bublé. He describes the Canadian crooner as an “absolute hero.”

28. Alongside Coldplay, Niall is a big fan of rock bands The Eagles, Bon Jovi and The Script.

29. Niall’s first pets were two goldfish called Tom and Jerry. Unfortunately they died when Niall’s older brother Greg accidentally overfed them!

30. When One Direction reached number one in the US with ‘Up All Night’, Katy Perry personally took to Twitter to congratulate Niall. A guest judge on The X Factor in 2010, she was initially hesitant to put Niall through to the next round and told him at the time “Don’t let us down.” Referencing this, she tweeted: “@NiallOfficial congratulations, you didn't let me down! xo,”

31. Niall’s Twitter address is @NiallOfficial. At the time of writing (August 2012) he has 5,360,356 followers – wow!

32. Justin Bieber follows Niall on Twitter and the good friends regularly chat on the social networking site. We spot a bromance!!

33. Niall suffers from claustrophobia – a fear of small and confined spaces. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror about the condition recently, Niall’s dad Bobby said: "There are hordes of young girls around him, and not much room to breathe anywhere. He says it can be frightening. Coming out of airports and girls crowding around their cars, he's started to get really claustrophobic."

34. Niall’s dad describes him as “a real gent, a lovely, well-mannered, well brought-up lad."

35. As well as claustrophobia, Niall has a fear of pigeons. He explains: “I get really nervous if pigeons are flying around before shows. I can't stand them after one once flew in through my bathroom window and went for me while I was having a wee. That was enough. I think pigeons target me." Poor Niall!

36. In 2012, Niall presented a #1DHQ show for The Hits Radio. His playlist was: Katy Perry ‘Last Friday Night’, Maroon 5 ‘Moves Like Jagger’, One Direction ‘One Thing’, JLS ‘Do You Feel What I Feel?’, Kelly Rowland ‘Commander’, Ne-Yo ‘So Sick’ and One Direction ‘What Makes You Beautiful’.

37. Niall told The Hits Radio that his ideal way to relax is to “sit back, get the feet up on the couch. On a Monday watch some Monday night football; through the week watch movies and on a weekend watch the sports channels.” He also likes to play the Playstation and chill at the 1D lads’ houses.

38. Despite the eight-year age gap, Paloma Faith says she fancies Niall! She told We Love Pop: " I love him. He can be my toyboy. I wouldn't mind having a younger boyfriend."

39. Niall was starstruck when he met Michelle Obama at The White House. He told Digital Spy: “She's an amazing-looking lady, and I'm a massive Barack Obama fan anyway.”

40. Niall would like One Direction to collaborate with Eminem on their next record. Sadly, it’s highly unlikely that Mr Mathers would agree to do it!

41. Niall got food poisoning after 1D’s spring tour of Australia and New Zealand. As he was about to board the 11,000 mile flight home, he tweeted: "Not feeling the best! sore all over! under the weather as they say!"

42. A piece of vegemite toast that Niall had half-eaten in Sydney, Australia was put up on eBay earlier this year. Bogus bids reached over £100,000!!

43. Niall has been romantically linked with Skins actress Freya Mavor and singer Demi Lovato. Both rumours were rubbished by Niall!

44. Niall is left-handed. A variety of studies suggest that approximately one in ten people are left-handed.

45. Niall likes to swear a lot and often stays quiet in interviews in case he accidentally says a rude word!

46. Unlike ink-obsessives Harry and Zayn, Niall doesn’t have any tattoos.

47. In July 2012, Niall jokingly called a group of girl fans at Dublin airport a “shower of c***s”. Despite most One Directioners knowing it was said in jest, the media backlash forced Niall to apologise. He tweeted: "Really sorry if I caused any offence. It was just banter with fans who I think of more as mates. But I understand that it's not a word I should be using at all."

48. One of Niall’s dream 1D collaborations is Labrinth who he believes is “super talented.”

49. Niall absolutely loves singing in the shower. He told TOTP magazine: "I sing all the time in the shower! I'll sing whatever's in the charts. Today I was singing 'It Will Rain' by Bruno Mars."

50. Niall’s first kiss was with a French exchange student when he was “11 or 12” years old. He admits he was “really nervous” at the time.

51. When One Direction were involved in a minor car accident in January, Niall laughed afterwards! He explained to Now Magazine: “I don’t know why, but I thought it was funny – it felt like being in bumper cars.”

52. Niall fancies the pants off 33-year-old Northern Irish TV presenter Christine Bleakley. He enthused: "I'm in love. Christine is amazing, so amazing. I love her! Seriously, she is my NBF, my new best friend - she is utterly incredible. I also think she's gorgeous... I like the older woman." Sadly for Niall, Christine is engaged to footballer Frank Lampard!

53. Niall’s (European) shoe size is eight.

54. Niall’s favourite movie of all time is Grease. He’s also a fan of horror movies.

55. Always a showman, when he was nine Niall played the lead role of Oliver in the St Kenny National School production of Oliver Twist.

56. Niall has too many favourite foods to mention! He’s especially fond of pizza and jokes that he’d rather eat a slice than kiss a girl.

57. Niall decided to audition for The X Factor on the night Joe McElderry won, on 13th December 2009.

58. Niall would date a fan one on condition – she didn’t scream in his face!

59. Niall is a flatulent fella. His 1D bandmates say he’s the biggest farter in the group!

60. While waiting outside for his first X Factor audition in Dublin, Niall entertained the crowd by performing a cover of Justin Bieber’s ‘One Time’ on his guitar.

61. Niall was voted the hottest male of 2011 by Sugarscape magazine, beating all of his One Direction bandmates!

62. Niall’s natural hair colour is dark brown.

63. When fans ask Niall to marry him he always jokingly responds with a “yes.”

64. When Niall first landed in Los Angeles with One Direction he celebrated by singing Miley Cyrus’s ‘Party In The USA’.

65. Niall’s dream date would be with iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove.

66. Niall’s favourite Valentine’s Day song is Van Morrison’s 1972 classic ‘Crazy Love’. Niall became aware of the track when Michael Bublé covered it in 2009.

67. Niall thinks that it would be a huge achievement if One Direction could get close to achieving Take That, N’Sync and The Backstreet Boys’ success. He said: “Hopefully we can emulate a tiny bit of their success because if we were to get anywhere near that it would be a very big achievement.”

68. Niall has a big crush on Katy Perry. He says: ““Katy Perry still gets me every time. She's very funny in person! We met at the Teen Choice Awards and she pulled my cheeks apart and told me how cute I was. My life was literally flashing before my eyes!"