New heartthrob set to parachute into Fair City on Christmas Day

Viewers will see Cian’s mum Joan wrangle to get her first-born son Matthew, now called Gareth, — whom she gave up for adoption when he was born — back with her by contacting him and pretending to be Cian.

Gar is not aware that Cian is dead after he was killed several weeks ago by Dermot Fahey.

And when Gar arrives into Carrigstown there’s a possibility of romance with Dearbhla Molloy, as the pair seem to hit it off.

That’s not the only storyline involving Cupid, with a love triangle brewing between Rafferty, Carol and Sharon.

Handsome 6’4” actor Shane Quigley Murphy (32), who plays Gar, reveals it was only in recent years that he grew into his looks.

“I didn’t grow up a good-looking dude,” Shane tells theSunday World. “I spent my youth and my teens quite heavy, so it’s interesting to come full circle in my 30s.”

After going to the gym regularly and watching his diet he says he managed to change his body for the better.

“It was a mix of things,” he says. “I think I went in and out of fads of trying it, but the secret unfortunately is just hard work and consistency, just doing a little quite often for the last year and a half.

“During Covid especially I started looking after myself a little better, and just looking after the body has really looked after everything else. It kept my mind sharp, it made me a little more commercially viable and it just keeps me in a much happier place all the time as well.”

He adds: “I’m really looking forward to how it looks on screen but also to see how it’s received by the fan base because as well you know the fan base makes it.”

Shane laughs at the idea of being a potential screen heartthrob.

“I don’t know. It depends on how I’m received,” said Shane, who is from Ballinteer, south Dublin and has a girlfriend of four years, Aisling.

“I think the thing for me is playing the authenticity of what’s happening and if he’s a heartthrob, that’s great I suppose.”

Shane is delighted about his new job on Fair City.

“Opportunities like these are few and far between, so the actor in me is absolutely delighted to have the consistency and also just to play around with his character,” he says.

And he admits Joan’s deception by pretending to be Cian to get to meet Gar is quite devious.

“It’s one of those born out of the moments of madness that you probably experience with grief like that — she pulls a sneaky one to get him there and from there I suppose it will unfold as you can probably imagine,” he reveals.