Story Highlight

-Niall Horan's Facts

How many facts do you know?!

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!"

69. Niall thinks he’s “literally the luckiest person in the world.”
70. Niall’s favourite album of all time is Bon Jovi’s ‘Greatest Hits’. Michael Bublé’s ‘Crazy Love’ is a close second.
71. Niall would make “a wonderful husband”, according to his dad Bobby.   
72. While he loves his female followers, Niall would like more male One Direction fans. He told blog Storyboard: "We want to see more boy fans, as seeing them in the crowd is cool. It's 90% girls, but we want to expand our fan base. We want different people to like us."
73. Niall owns his own personalised cap. In emerald green (his home nation Ireland’s colour) it has his name embroidered on the back.
74. Niall has read the saucy novel Fifty Shades of Grey… well, a tiny part of it. He told the Daily Mirror: "A girl gave it to me the other day! I read the first page and put it down. But it was good."
75. Although she has denied tabloid reports of a romance, Demi Lovato thinks that Niall is “sweet.”
76. Niall himself admits he’s “an emotional guy” who wears his heart on his sleeve.
77. On some days Niall chooses not to wear any underwear! “I like to go free and easy from time to time,” he told Metro.
78. When 1D are on the road, Niall loves to chat to his friends and family via Skype on the tour bus.
79. When he was little, Niall had an imaginary friend called Michael. He’s since tried to deny it in interviews claiming Michael was a real person.
80. Niall doesn’t like it when girls pretend to act dumb. He tweeted: "I hate it when girls act stupid 'cause they think it's cute. Intelligence is sexy."
81. Niall admits he still gets nervous before live shows. He told Digital Spy: “When we first started out the thought of getting up on stage freaked us all out. The kind of crowds we get are very, very loud which helps. The bigger the crowd the better really! The noise calms your nerves."
82. Niall likes natural beauties. He tweeted: “Well I like a girl who don't wear make up.”
83. When in America, Niall often gets invited to school leavers’ parties. “I always get asked to go to proms,” Niall told The Sun. “I've been asked about ten times.”
84. In January 2012, Louis pulled Niall’s pants down at a motorway service station in front of fans. Niall said afterwards he was “so embarrassed.”
85. Niall once challenged Olly Murs to a fight. Thankfully it was just Twitter banter and the good friends never got involved in fisticuffs!
86. For his 18th birthday, Niall’s 1D bandmates bought him a life-size model of President Barack Obama. Niall later accidentally knocked one of Obama’s arms off. Doh!
87. Niall shares his birthday (13th September) with a number of famous people including cricketer Shane Warne, legendary author Roald Dahl and US athlete Michael Johnson.
88. In May 2012, Niall performed an acoustic rendition of ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ with Olly Murs. The video, shot backstage during 1D’s North American tour, has now racked up almost 1million views on YouTube.
89. The first gig Niall ever went to was Busted in Dublin when he was 10-years-old.
90. Niall is notoriously noisy. Liam Payne commented: “You usually hear Niall before you see him.” Hilarious!
91. Niall is a big fan of giraffes. He’s even been photographed by paparazzi cuddling a toy one! Explaining why he loves them so, Niall said: “They’re so long, I wish I was one, then maybe I’d be taller.”
92. Niall is great at mimicking accents – especially Scottish, Geordie and American ones.
93. Niall’s favourite Justin Bieber songs are ‘U Smile’ and ‘One Less Lonely Girl’.
94. Niall thinks his millions of followers are better looking than him. He said: “The fans always tell me I’m beautiful, but no one will ever be as beautiful as them.”
95. In October 2011, Niall was late for a 4music interview. As his 1D bandmates waited, in the background Niall fell flat on his bum when he tripped over as he raced to make it on time. Rather than take sympathy, Harry asked the TV crew “Did you get that on camera?!”
96. Niall thinks that his best qualities are he’s “a good laugh, honest and generous.”
97. Niall thinks that not having a boyfriend or girlfriend isn’t a bad thing. He explains: “Being single doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means you’re strong enough to wait for what you deserve”
98. Niall didn’t think he’d progress very far in The X Factor. He said: “When I was in Dublin I looked around, and there’s like 8,000 people at the auditions, and I’m thinking ‘not a hope, there’s not a chance of me getting anywhere’.”
99. Niall often speaks in his sleep, a condition called somniloquy.
100. Niall’s favourite song on ‘Up All Night’ is the Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Koetcha penned ‘One Thing’. The single reached number 9 in the UK back in January.
101. According to former Boyzone star Keith Duffy, Niall is “a smashing lad” and is “really down to earth.”