The young man who was hailed for his good deeds this week after it was spotted on CCTV has said he is 'shocked' by the reception.

Footage of a young man cleaning up a mess caused by vandals outside a shop in Ardee, Co Louth went viral this week with the shop owner hailing the young man as a 'local hero'

However, Eimhin Keenan told Independent.ie that he was "shocked" by the reaction to the clip and he said he "thought nothing of it at the time".

Eimhin told Independent.ie how his good deed came to pass.

"I was just coming back into town from a 21st in Monaghan so I made a quick run to the ATM and on the way I came across the plants on the footpath," he said.

"I just thought to myself it'd take a minute to pop them back in and then go about my business.

"I never thought it would go this far to be honest.

"I'm fairly shocked at the reception it got because I thought nothing of it at the time.

"I hadn't given it too much thought until I was tagged in the video on Tuesday."

Eimhin's good deed only came to light when the shop owner, Thomas Kearney, was reviewing the footage to see what happened.

"It's a pretty good news story I have to say," Mr Kearney said.

"It happened on early Sunday morning but I wasn't back into the shop until Tuesday when I noticed what had happened," owner Thomas Kearney told independent.ie.

"You couldn't make it up. You can see the man running and then stopping once he seen the mess and he starts cleaning it all up. It's absolutely fantastic. The positive moment beat the vandals' negative moment by a country mile."

After posting the clip of the young man tidying up and even re-potting flowers on the store's Facebook page, Mr Kearney said the video has gone viral.

"He's now a local hero. He's not short of being proposed to with the amount of good well messages sent on our Facebook page. Everyone loves him!"

Eimhin has said that the reaction has been "gas" and that his GAA team, Ardee St Mary's also shared the video with a post saying that it was good to see him out for a pre-season jog.

Online Editors