23/02/2026
✨️Tune in to Virgin Media one on Wednesday night to see part 2 of the new .✨️
A great piece by the Irish Independent 👏
Ever since he was a child, Wexford man Nathan O’Connor knew what he wanted to be. You could say that, since joining the Order of Malta as a cadet aged 13, most of his decisions in life have been taken with one goal in mind - to become a paramedic with the National Ambulance Service.
Now aged 31, not only has Nathan finally realised his long-held dream, but it’s playing out in front of the eyes of the whole country on Virgin Media TV, as he plays a starring role in First Timers on the Frontline – a new four-part documentary series which provides an insight into the working life of a newly qualified paramedic.
It saw Nathan deal with a 13 year-old boy who had slipped and suffered a nasty leg break.
"It was such a simple thing that happened to him and it’s an injury that would be traumatic for an adult, never mind a child. I've only broken my wrist and my nose a few times, I can only imagine the pain that he was going through.”
It led to Nathan performing his first real-world traction splint, something he had never done outside of a college classroom, all with the added pressure of the cameras.
Being a father of two young children, the calls involving children are the ones that Nathan finds the most difficult.
"You’re dealing with kids that are the same age as your own kids, and you just think ‘Jesus, how lucky am I that my kids are safe at home’. But then the other side of it is that it could be any of our kids tomorrow. Anything can happen.
"One of my colleagues had a great expression – ‘it's not my sadness’. That's something that struck home with me. What happens in work sometimes is sad, but if I took that home, I’d never sleep. I'd never be able to have fun with the kids."
First Timers on the Frontline continues Wednesday, February 25 at 9 p.m. on Virgin Media PLAY and Virgin Media One