The Ciara Phelan Podcast: Joanne O’Riordan on life with a disability, her positive outlook and dating

On her positive outlook on life, Ms O’Riordan said there wasn’t any particular moment in her life where she understood she had a disability, a condition known as Total Amelia Syndrome.

She said she always feels sorry for people who acquire a disability whether through an accident or injury.

“I like to think that I am positive. People realise I’m very accepting of my situation and I’m not sitting in a corner crying because I have no limbs.

“What I’ve learned irrespective of what you go through, life goes on and it goes on without you."

She spoke of the lack of awareness people have for people living with a disability. People who break a limb or new parents who have to push a buggy around Dublin only then realise how inaccessible the capital is.

Ms O’Riordan said “hand on heart” she’s never dealt with inappropriate behaviour while out at night with friends. She said she thinks this may also be because she has been on TV since the age of 15 and that she is recognisable to people.

On having a family of her own some day, she said that she is “personally not at that level” in her life. Ms O’Riordan said she thinks she’ll get married in her 40s or 50s and plans to have a farm to share with her dogs.

Episode 2: Eamon Ryan on counselling, family, and the sleeping incident

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has told how counselling helped him during a difficult time in his life, including developing relationships.

In a wide-ranging interview on The Ciara Phelan Podcast, the Government minister discusses coping following the loss of his mother last year, his family life, and addresses the misconceptions people may have about him.

Mr Ryan said he thinks it’s “healthy” and “useful” to go for counselling, which he said he had many years ago.

He told how he had a happy childhood and was just an “ordinary” person, but he didn’t learn to read or write until he attended secondary school.

“I don’t think I developed until my late 20s in terms of, ‘God I was hopeless in so many different ways’," he said.

“Too much drinking, not great with girls or relationships, but I was happy, I think just happy to be alive and getting on with it.

"I found it [counselling] helped in developing relationships with other people.”

Mr Ryan also spoke of how he was “angry” with his father’s absence at home while he was a child, but said that was due to his career in public relations working for AIB.

“We had our problems, like every family," he said. "My dad was working in public relations at the time for AIB, and that meant he was in Doheny & Nesbitts most nights.

“That was the way the world of public relations and journalism worked at that time.

"He had an amazing career and ability to befriend people in that world. 

It meant he was absent from home; that was tough, tough on my mother. 

But they got through that and I think, for me, it [home] was a very loving place.”

Mr Ryan also opens up about his son Tommy, who has a rare form of autism. 

He also speaks about the “hurt” caused when he fell asleep during a Dáil session which was held at the Convention Centre during the pandemic. He said it was something that he “deeply regretted”.

Episode 1: Mary McEvoy on her eating disorder, depression and Gay Byrne's help

Actress Mary McEvoy has told how she struggled with fame as a result of playing Biddy Byrne in Glenroe and said it was the late Gay Byrne who first noticed she wasn’t herself.

Ms McEvoy also spoke about how she developed an eating disorder as she tried to cope with depression, how bullying impeded her taking another career path and how Pilates has changed her life.

Speaking on The Ciara Phelan Podcast, Ms McEvoy said she “hadn’t a clue” how to deal with the fame of Glenroe and really only enjoyed the initial attraction it brought.

She said while Glenroe was airing, celebrity culture was only beginning and “you do end up being a little bit like a hunted animal”.

“It was very hard. I remember sometimes going ‘who can help me here’.”

She said Joe Lynch, who played Dinny in Glenroe, and broadcaster Gay Byrne supported her.

“Anytime I met him [Gay Byrne], he was the first person to notice I wasn’t myself and the first person who ever said, ‘are you alright?’ and he was always very kind to me, and I’ll never forget [that].”

Ms McEvoy, who has previously spoken about her mental health struggles, said it was only this year that she had seen her mental health “bob up”.

“I’m one of the lucky ones when I get into a depressive period, I have kind of a real blood and guts desire to survive and I’ve never considered you know, taking my own life.

“I often had a fleeting thing of 'I can really understand why people want everything to end' but I’ve never wanted to myself because I’m too curious.”

She said taking a step back since covid-19 and choosing work that gives her pleasure has improved her well-being.

“It’s only really this year that I’m seeing my mental health bob up,” she said.

It’s not to say I was down all the time but that awful anxiety all of the time that was there, constantly it was horrendous.. to a degree that has stopped.

Ms McEvoy said when previously coping with depression, she developed an eating disorder and her weight “went up” to a degree that was life-threatening.

On the podcast, she tells how she turned this around and the “eating to fill the void has stopped completely”. 

Ms McEvoy also speaks about practising Buddhism and how it informs everything she does in life. She also discloses how bullying impacted her career and much more.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article and podcast, please click here for a list of support services.

The Ciara Phelan Podcast goes live at 9am every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts.