EVEN BY the standards of the mass hysteria which appears to surround their every public move, Jedward had to contend with a near deafening cacophony of shrieks when they turned up at a Dublin national school yesterday afternoon.
The pupils of St Colmcille’s National School in Knocklyon, the biggest in the State, were told to expect a visit from the irrepressible twins as a reward for their efforts in collecting 2,293 old mobile phones for the Jack and Jill Foundation.
They did not, however, know the hour or the moment until Jedward bounded through the doors of the senior school hall yesterday morning with a retinue of media, security men and gardaí trailing behind.
The recycled mobile phones will raise funds for the foundation, which provides home nursing care and respite for 300 children with brain damage nationwide who suffer from severe intellectual and physical developmental delay.
The din was so loud that even Jedward struggled to be heard. They then proceeded to the junior school where the pupils, wearing paper “jedheads”, were equally vociferous in their greetings for the pair.
Afterwards, Jedward visited the Presentation Primary School in Drogheda, a much smaller school, where pupils collected 2,137 phones, almost six each.
Competition between the two schools for the first prize was such that St Colmcille’s had to collect 600 phones in the last week to surpass the Drogheda school.
The schools won Promethean interactive whiteboards for their efforts.
Yesterday was Jedward’s first media appearance since performing for US president Barack Obama at College Green in Dublin last month.
The pair got to meet Mr Obama, who confided that his daughters had looked them up on YouTube.
Weighty affairs of state featured nowhere in the conversation between the world’s most famous man and Ireland’s most famous teenagers.
“We were talking to him about Justin Bieber, Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus,” revealed John. “He thought they were cool.”
They also met his wife Michelle and discussed Oprah Winfrey and “that type of stuff”.
