Doireann on motherhood and going on the road with baby Rosie
Charlotte Ryan speaks to Doireann Garrihy ahead of her live podcast show The Laughs of You Life LIVE hitting the road, to talk about the importance of laughter and settling into motherhood.
When we speak, Doireann Garrihy is in the last few weeks of prepping for The Laughs Of Your Life LIVE, the live tour of her award-winning podcast that will take her across the country next month.
"May is going to be a very, very busy time with radio and with the tour, but I'm really looking forward to it", the presenter says, adding that "I'm kind of in that in-between time now where I am back to work in terms of there's so much to be done to plan for the tour, but I'm not fully in it yet. So I'm kind of looking forward to actually being in the month of May and being on the road and yes, and being on stage."
She "adores" being on stage, she says. After two sold-out shows in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in April 2023 and two sold-out nights at the Cork Podcast Festival in 2025, Garrihy will take to the stage in Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Dublin, and Limerick, inviting special guests for a no-holds-barred conversation celebrating the beauty of having a laugh.
This run, she adds, will be different in that she will "perform" on the night, not doing stand-up per se but spending more time talking to the audience and doing her "own thing".
It's a milestone moment for the presenter and comedian, in a few years of huge personal moments - her marriage to comedian Mark Mehigan, welcoming their daughter Rosie at the end of the last year and winning The Conversation Award at the 2025 All Ireland Podcast Awards.
Garrihy launched the podcast in 2019 and says it has "kind of been my baby ever since".
"I do lots of different types of work in media, but podcasting is one that I really love, and it kind of feels like my own thing."
Inspired initially by Desert Island Discs, Garrihy wanted something that prompted the same kind of far-ranging conversation, but adds that "I didn't want it to be a comedy podcast. I wanted it to be more than that".
"A lot of people, even though they will do their homework in advance of being a guest on the podcast, a lot of the time I'll put the microphones down afterwards and they're like, I really didn't think I would tell you so much about myself."
It'll be an especially significant tour for the presenter as she'll have an extra guest on the road: her daughter Rosie, who was born last October. Prepping for this part of the tour began long before Rosie arrived, as Garrihy recalls:
"My husband Mark and my mum and dad, Claire and Eugene; they have completely blocked out May to help me. And I kind of ran that by them before I even gave birth. I was like, by any chance, can you just not make any plans for May 2026? And they all agreed, and I'm so lucky to have them coming on the road with me."
Speaking about the past few months of motherhood, Garrihy says, "it's like a bomb hitting your life, but a nice bomb".
"It's kind of the greatest and hardest thing I've ever done. Like, she's the dream, and she's a gorgeous little girl, and she's— her personality is really starting to come out now. It's equal parts terrifying and amazing when you go: this is a little person I've brought into the world, and I'm responsible for, but at the same time, it's just the greatest.
"Like, every morning waking up and as soon as she smiles, you're just like, ah, this is what it's all about."
Adding to the magic of her entry into motherhood was the fact that Garrihy's two sisters, Ailbhe and Aoibhín, were also expecting at the same time. Ailbhe welcomed a boy four weeks after Doireann, while Aoibhín welcomed a little girl just four weeks ago.
"I don't know what I would be like or how I would have managed over the past while without being able to lean on them", Garrihy says.
"And it's not even necessarily for motherhood stuff, just sisterly things. Because you are your own person as well, even when you become a mum, you still have the things that you were always worried about before, or [were] insecure about before, and to be able to talk to them about any of that, it's amazing. It's a very special time for all of us to have our little babies at the same time."
