Doireann Garrihy: "I try to be myself in everything I do"
With her new weekday morning show, Doireann Garrihy is relishing the chance to get to know her audience, chat about all kinds of everything and have a few laughs on the way. She talks to Claire O'Mahony about slotting 2FM Morning with Doireann Garrihy into a busy home life with baby Rosie.
Doireann Garrihy sounds in flying form when we catch up. Not without reason: she is back on air at RTÉ 2FM with a weekday show and in the middle of a live tour of her podcast, The Laughs of Your Life.
"It really feels great. I adore radio, and I guess this show has always been a dream show for me, this time slot," she says of her return to the airwaves.
At home, life is just as busy. Rosie, her daughter and first child with her comedian husband, Mark Mehigan, is six months old.
"She’s wonderful, she’s great, and she’s a total joy. She’s changing so fast. You don’t really notice just how fast they’re growing until the other day I saw her in one of my friend’s arms and it’s like 'Oh my God, she’s such a big baby now!’"
Her life has been transformed in many ways since the birth of Rosie, and not just the most obvious demands of new parenthood.
"Three or four hours could go by, and I don’t even know where my phone is. That was unheard of before I had a baby. So in terms of being on the phone or on Instagram, I definitely don’t feel that pressure any more," she says.
Doireann has become much more conscious of what she posts on social media. "I think I do share quite a bit, but there’s so much I don’t share too. I kind of go, if this is going to help someone, or if it’s going to maybe help me, if in sharing it, I then get a response from people, and I go, okay, I’m not alone, that’s great.
"For example, Rosie is sleeping quite well at the moment, but I haven’t been that vocal about that on Instagram because I don’t want to make anyone feel like ‘Oh God, my baby’s the same age, and it’s not going as well.’"
Her parents, Eugene and Clare, live close by in Castleknock, Dublin, and they have been a huge support.
"I’m so lucky. I have fantastic parents who not only live close by, which has been such a major plus since I’ve had a baby, but they are always at the end of the phone, and they’ll always try and give me very balanced advice."
There are also her sisters, Ailbhe, the general manager of the family business, Dublin Bay Cruises, and Aoibhín (who found fame as an actor in Fair City), to call on.
"Ailbhe had her little boy a month after me, so any chance I get, we go for a walk. She only lives 15 minutes away, but she has two other boys, so life is very busy for her with school and after-school stuff. And then Aoibhín lives in Ennis, so any chance we can, we go down, or she comes up. We're trying to pencil in a few concerts across the summer to get some mum off-time.
We recently did a hotel stay, the three of us. It was an end-of-maternity leave treat for me, and they brought their smallest babies. It was gorgeous, and I think it's just really important to get stuff like that in the diary, even if it's not for another three or six months."
She and her husband Mark have their own way of managing the pace of things. "He’s very calm when I need him to be. I think we are that for each other because we both can be very hyper. We’re good at knowing, okay, I’m hyper today, and I’m up to 90, can you be the calm person?"
Work has picked up again in recent weeks with her return to RTÉ 2FM.
"I’ve kind of done every other slot really over the past 10 years. But it’s always been a dream to have a show like this, a sort of magazine-style show where there’s a real mix of serious, not so serious, fun, entertaining, topical, conversational things. So I’m really looking forward to getting my teeth into it. It’ll take time to get used to it and to settle in, like any new job, but I’m really excited."
Radio, she says, reflects an Irish love of discussion and storytelling. "I think we love conversation, we love chatting, and I think that’s a massive part of it because with radio you do feel like there’s someone in your sitting room or in your kitchen or in your car with you. Or at least that’s what radio should make you feel, that someone is talking to you."
Even now, with podcasts and streaming everywhere, Doireann doesn’t think that has changed. "There are so many options out there now for audio, whether it’s podcasting or just your own Spotify playlist or whatever it might be, but nothing can quite replicate the feeling of listening to radio. If there’s breaking news, whether it’s current affairs or it’s entertainment, you’re not going to get that live reaction anywhere else."
Work for her has moved across television, including presenting Dancing With The Stars, impressionism, live events and podcasting, but she comes back to the same approach each time. "I think authenticity is the most important thing for any of those platforms, whether it’s social media or TV or radio or podcasting. I guess I try to be myself in everything I do."
Her podcasting career – The Laughs of Your Life has been running for seven years now – has given her more time to sit with conversations.
"I love the slower pace that you have, the security of being pre-recorded, and you can kind of take your time with it more. When I started The Laughs of Your Life, that was really important to me because I only really had experience in fast-paced breakfast radio or a lot of craic in the evenings, whereas I really wanted to show that I could do longer form interviews as well."
She describes confidence as something that comes with the work, but not without preparation. "I think there’s a bit of both. Of course, I’m confident. I love performance. I’ve always loved being on a stage [she graduated from theatre and drama studies at Trinity]. But at the same time, preparation is so important for me. If I don’t feel prepared, I can’t function half as well as I can when I feel ready for something."
She continues: "I think for the most part I am really confident, but I’m quite introverted as well. I really love staying in and chilling out at home."
Living beside Phoenix Park, she makes the most of the huge green space ."It’s just heaven," she says. "Even if the weather isn’t great, I just put on the right gear and go out. We always commit to a family walk on Saturday or Sunday or both, and we do at least an hour, sometimes two hours, and it’s such a gorgeous reset."
Evenings tend to be about staying in. "I love getting into my pyjamas as early as possible Mark calls it settling in. He'll be like, what time are we settling in? And that basically means neither of us have to leave the house. It sounds very simple, but it’s like, as in the dog has been given the last walk and we don't have to think about opening the door again."
In such a visible job, criticism is inevitable. How does she deal with it?
"I guess I've had to learn the hard way in many ways. I think it absolutely comes with the territory of being in the public eye, whether it's on social media or on radio or on TV. And so I've gotten a lot stronger. I've gotten much better at telling apart something that's criticism or something that's feedback that I should maybe listen to," she explains.
"If I got any kind of negative message, I used to go, ‘Oh God, this is awful. I'm being criticised, poor me’. Whereas now, I've gotten better at going, okay, this person has sent a message, and there might be something in it. It's great that I have grown in that way, particularly for something like 2FM Morning, where we are going to be dealing with things where I will probably have an opinion that not everyone's going to agree with."
Her focus now is on settling into the new show. "I really want to give a lot and make sure I do my best possible job. I’m so excited for it and to settle into it and to figure out exactly what the listeners love and do more of that, and what they’re not enjoying, do less of that.
"It’ll be busy. It’s going to be very busy over the next while, so it’ll be a juggle, but I’m totally up for it."The Laughs of Your Life Live is on a nationwide tour throughout May.
