Jacksepticeye gets 'outstanding young person' award after raising $6m for charity

YouTube superstar Sean McLoughlin, a.k.a. Jacksepticeye, has been named as one of Ireland's most outstanding young people as a result of his online charity streams which have raised more than $6 million since 2017.

The 31-year-old native of Cloghan, Offaly, is a former Athlone resident and ex-AIT student.

He's the creator of what is, by some distance, the most popular Irish YouTube channel, with 27 million subscribers and over 14.1 billion views to date.

Last weekend, Sean was named alongside the likes of jockey Rachael Blackmore and the billionaire Collison brothers, who founded the Stripe online payments platform, at JCI Ireland's 'Ten Outstanding Young Persons' awards.

Sean was chosen for the honour in the cultural achievement category.

"People may know Sean or JackSepticEye as just a YouTuber who plays computer games, but he has raised over $6 million for charity since 2017 and it's great to see him using that word of mouth, and that reach on social networks, to do good in the world," said Derek Reilly, one of the hosts of the awards.

One of Sean's online fundraisers, in April 2020, was a marathon 11-hour live stream which helped raise a whopping $654,884 (just under €600,000) to help in the fight against Covid-19.

The money from that event was distributed to United Way Worldwide; the United Nations Foundation's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organisation; and Comic Relief US's Red Nose Day.

The awards last weekend were organised by JCI Ireland (Junior Chamber International Ireland) a voluntary, worldwide personal development organisation for young professionals and entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 40.

The event had been launched in March in the presence of Roderic O'Gorman, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

A month-long nomination process culminated with the awards ceremony which was held virtually on Saturday last, May 15.

The event can be viewed here: