Lynch first came to prominence in Boyzone but, like a large number of today's 'celebrities', he has become more famous for appearing as a 'famous person' on reality TV. And Love Island was his latest destination. Earning the nickname 'Fr Shane', Lynch spent most of his time reading the bible and dishing out increasingly complicated metaphors under the guise of advice.

Various revelations from the Dublin man made frontpage tabloid stories throughout his stint on the programme. He confessed to sleeping with 100 women while in Boyzone. (That's over a 10-year period, mind you, hardly an earth-shattering statistic for a modern pop star. ) He also dropped a bizarre bombshell that, at one stage, he had immersed himself in witchcraft and was in a cult.

But mostly, Lynch will be remembered on Love Island for fending off the near-carnivorous advances of model Sophie Anderton who stalked him at every turn.

Viewers consistently voted the 'couple' into the 'love shack' in the TV resort where Shane refused to share a bed with Anderton, choosing the couch instead and perhaps missing the point of the entire programme.

Nevertheless, Anderton confessed love, clung to Lynch like a sinking sailor to a floating plank of wood, and sobbed her little heart out when he eventually decided to leave the programme. He spent his last day reading the bible before confessing that he had to make amends with a woman back home. "There is no woman like a woman I know back home, " he said. "I need to put the mistakes right. To cut a long story short, my time has come and I need to leave this place.

It's been confirmed in my heart."

Anderton wasn't the only one weeping. Hollyoaks actor Lee Otway shaved his head to look like Shane, and . . .

through tears and yelps of "I don't want you to go, I need you here" . . . insisted he was going to get his ears pierced to imitate Lynch. Before he walked from the set, Lynch was named by Paddy Power bookmakers as the favourite man to win the TV contest at odds of 4/5. And although his official excuse for leaving was to make amends with a former love, he conveniently made it to his younger sister Edele's wedding at Kinnity Castle in Co Offaly on Wednesday with minutes to spare.

Lynch was born 30 years ago in Dublin to parents Noleen and Brendan. He has two older sisters . . . Tara and Alison . . . and three younger . . . Naomi, Keavy and Edele.

The latter two, who are twins, went on to become one half of the girlband B*Witched, and Naomi eventually became one half of the shortlived Buffalo G, frequently mentioned in the same breath as the 'worst Irish band ever'.

At 17, Shane Lynch, who was working as an apprentice mechanic with his father, replied to an advertisement from Louis Walsh who was establishing a new boyband aimed at rivalling Take That. Lynch sang 'Careless Whisper' in the audition and made his embarrassing television debut with the rest of the band on The Late Late Show in November 1993, an oft-repeated clip in which the boys are dancing completely out of sync. Gay Byrne ridiculed the performance, but how wrong he was, as Boyzone went on to sell over 10m records and had 16 top 10 singles. Lynch attributed his desire to enter the music industry to his admiration for Will Smith in the 1990s Fresh Prince Of Bel Air TV programme.

Lynch stuck out from the clean-cut image of Boyzone.

As their career progressed, his hairstyles became more elaborate, his eyebrows more tweezed and his piercings and tattoos more visible. His body is now almost completely covered in tattoos of crosses, numbers, ropes and chains.

During the winding down of Boyzone, Lynch married Easther Bennett from girl group Eternal in 1998. He became increasingly controversial, dropping his trousers during a stroll on the catwalk at a charity fashion show, and slammed by the media for his foulmouthed tirade at the MTV Awards in 1999, when he dismissed rumours of an end to Boyzone as "f***ing shite". The band were to end a year later following increased tension between the members and Louis Walsh, who branded Shane a "passenger" in the group.

"When you see facial hair, earrings and tattoos and they start to talk about being individuals, it's time to go to the conveyor belt and get a new set, " Walsh has since said. Lynch split from his wife in 2000, just two years after they tied the knot. Following the Boyzone break-up, he threatened to beat up Ronan Keating, blaming the group's demise on Keating's desire to concentrate on his own solo career: "We'd have made it in America.

We're Paddies, man. Americans love Paddies. The big bucks were going to roll in, " Lynch fumed at the time.

He then embarked on a few ill-fated stabs at furthering his musical career, first with band member Keith Duffy as 'Keith & Shane'. They covered Milli Vanilli's 'Girl You Know It's True', and Lynch set about distancing himself from his boyband past, eventually forming Redhill . . . a rock-rap act that disappeared soon after its inception.

Rally-driving, Lynch's other passion, was something he continued, until a dramatic crash led him to rediscover God. His born-again Christianity now defines his personality. In 2004, he reemerged to take part in the Channel 4 series The Games, astounding viewers with his determination and eventually winning a gold medal following a nearflawless somersault dive.

Although there are solo tracks from Lynch on his MySpace website, he now spends most of his time spreading the word of his new Christian life. Religion has completely changed him from the foulmouthed drinker who once punched rapper P Diddy during a row about where his then-wife Bennett could or could not sit.

Now, he is soft-spoken and reflective, offering advice to the younger celebs on Love Island and infuriating the older, more raucous contestants with his moral stance on everything from swearing to sex.

He shocked producers of the programme by calling a psychic he visited on a 'date' with Playboy bunny contestant Colleen, "demonic". "I love my God, my Jesus Christ and that's my Saviour, " he told the fortune teller.

"I don't mess with the dark side. I've been there before. I understand it and at this point of my life it's one of the reasons I'm so solid."

As the tabloid storm abates, Lynch has got God's business to take care of. He will speak at the Stocksbridge Sports Centre in Sheffield at 7.30pm on Saturday 30 September. Tickets are £4 for adults and £2.50 for under 16s.

C.V.

Full name: Shane Eamonn Mark Stephen Lynch
Born: 3 July 1976
Status: Divorced from singer Easther Bennet in 2000 after two years. Now presumed to be back with girlfriend Sheena White
Profession: Occasional singer, Christian activist
In the news because: He walked off reality TV show Love Island