Niall Horan has a very proud family cheering him on from his home in Mullingar, Ireland. Horan and the rest of his group One Direction made record charts history this week when they were the first UK act to debut at number one on US charts - outshining the likes of The Beatles and the Spice Girls.

The Independent reports that Horan has one proud papa waiting for him back home in Ireland. "He has done it, and we couldn't be more proud," said Niall’s father, Bobby Horan last night. "The whole country is proud of him.”

Bobby Horan remembers his son as having "never stopped singing from the moment he woke up to the time he went to bed.”

After trying out at the Croke Park auditions for the UK ‘X Factor’ competition in 2010, Horan failed to make it through as a solo artist, but instead was grouped together with four English boys to form One Direction.

The group only came in in third place on the reality competition, but Simon Cowell signed the lads to his label Syco. Since then, the boys have been rising to fame and have securely clinched the US market.

"It's been an incredible two years," Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) tweeted this week. Besides the huge announcement that the boys debuted at number one, Nickelodeon announced that they’ve signed One Direction on for a new television show, and yesterday the group announced a North American summer tour.

Cracking the US market is no easy feat for a foreign group; just look to other Irish boy-bands Boyzone and WestLife. The two Irish groups never found the American success that One Direction have already gained.

While Niall Horan and the members of One Direction are enjoying unprecedented success stateside, his family back home misses him. "It is tough that he is so hard to contact. We miss him terribly, it is the downside to all of this,” said his father.

"We are so excited and proud of him. It really is an incredible achievement to hear them being compared to the Beatles."

Here, catch the video for One Direction’s tune ‘One Thing:’