As a little boy, Shane was always very lively and into music and he took leading
parts in plays. Even though he was the youngest of seven, he was very capable
from when he was little. He was a very loving child - no matter what you'd want
Shane to do he'd just fly off and do it for you.
I would often expect Shane to be doing his homework and I'd find him upstairs
singing: he was really into that. As a teenager he was very much into sports:
rugby, Gaelic football, soccer and show- jumping. If you were in bad form or
anything Shane would start telling a joke to cheer you up.
I always knew he would go into what he's doing now, though maybe not with such a
big profile. I didn't expect him to be lucky enough to meet people like Louis
Walsh and Ronan Keating. It was me, originally, that rang Louis. I'm from
Kiltimagh and I knew Louis as a child. I knew that Shane had a talent but when I
rang Louis I was just hoping that he might just get him into a band or
something. I didn't know what to expect, otherwise I might have advised him to
go back to college!
Despite the events of the past year Shane is still the same. I haven't noticed a
difference, although he misses home and all that. It's a big world he's out in
and he realises that he has to be careful and I'm sure he has learned a lot, now
that he has travelled so much. When he went away at first I was more worried - I
just didn't know what to expect or what they were really getting themselves
into. But I don't worry about a thing because Anto, their tour manager, looks
after them. He's like a father to those boys. And I know Louis and Ronan won't
let anything go wrong, as long as the boys keep their heads on their shoulders
and their feet on the ground. The speed at which everything happened took us all
by surprise, as nobody could have guessed that the band would go so far so
quickly,’ says Mae. ‘Even Louis has said to me a couple of times, “Where
would we be if you hadn’t made that call?”’
But Mae always had huge faith in her youngest child: ‘I always knew he’d do
something in the music business. He always loved it.’ And although he’s
zooming here, there and everywhere, Shane always finds time to phone home:
‘He’s very good about phoning us, particularly if he’s travelling a lot.
If he’s flying from Italy to America, for example, he’ll call before he
leaves Italy, and then ring once he lands in America, just to let me know that
he’s arrived safely.’
As the Filan’s restaurant is right in the heart of the town, it has become the
first Sligo stopping-off point for Westlife fans. ‘The fans are great, and we
get a lot of visitors, as we are so easy to find,’ says Mae. ‘They sometime
bring me lovely presents, such as little figurines or photographs of Shane which
they have taken themselves. One girl was sitting in the restaurant and asked me,
“Has Shane ever sat in this seat?” I said, “Of course, he’s sat in every
seat over the years” – and she fainted dead away on the spot!’
source- "In Real Life Westlife", by Lise Hand. the official book
Source : Westloife