We love catching up with Carl Mullan, he is such a hoot. He’s on the way home from his radio show when we chat with him. He is in full dad mode as he’s ready to go back to his three children, Daibhí, Éala and Béibhínn after a morning on air.
After we spend a bit too much time discussing the ins and outs of this year’s Formula 1 championship, we settle down to chat about life on and off the air. How being a dad has changed him and his recent ADHD diagnosis. He’s also sharing what he’s recently bought through Amazon Prime (he is a dad afterall!)
There’s no topic off the table for Carl, but he always brings a levity to our chats that we appreciate…
Carl, we’re tired just thinking about how early you get up!
A lot of people talk to me about being up really early! But I’m actually very lucky in that, Because I’m I live not too far from RTÉ, like 15 minutes in the car. Particularly in the mornings when there’s no traffic. But there’s a whole section of the country that is up a hell of a lot earlier than I would be! You have people texting in, and they’ve been on the go for ages. I’m so lucky, especially as a parent. There are people who have to get up at like half four or five in the morning to drive a couple of hours to get to work, and then when they finish work, they’ve another couple of hours back. It must be so difficult to have time with your family. I’m lucky because the early start suits me in the stage of life that I’m at.
Do you get much sleep with your three little ones?
When they were new babies, obviously, it was chaos! Our youngest baby is just over a year, and she’s her sleep has really settled. For the most part, they’re actually decent enough sleep. They’re early risers, but they don’t wake up a huge amount in the night now. We’re kind of blessed.
A perk of being up bright and early means that you get the afternoons with your kids!
Because I start so early, my natural workday finishes a bit earlier as well, which gives me loads of time with the kids. I really have to pinch myself sometimes and go, “God, I’m so so lucky to get to spend this amount of time with them”. It’s busy, and it’s chaotic, but it’s also brilliant, and they’re at it just such a fun age. You spend half the day pulling your hair out and getting annoyed at yourself or getting stressed, but then they’ll say something or do something funny!
Speaking of work, you, Roz Purcell and Aisling Bonner are the dream team!
It was a big change, and obviously you’re going, “Oh God, it’s gonna be two new people, a new dynamic.” But I have to say like the two girls from the very beginning, they were so open and understanding with the stage of life that I was at. I’m at a very different stage, I have the kids at home and I wouldn’t be going out at the weekends all the time. I joke about me being s**t craic! I’m not going off and doing anything wild. I’m just at that stage where you’re just busy with like kids, and I know it’ll all come back around I know in a few years time there’ll be way more opportunities for myself and Ais to have a bit more of a social life again. But that’s one thing that the girls were brilliant with! Even though they don’t have kids they’ve loads of interest in my life as a dad. Like I come in and they’re like, “How are Daibhí, Éala and Béibhínn?” And if there was a day where I came in and we hadn’t slept, I could come in and tell them that. And they’re genuinely like “Jesus, Carl, I don’t know how you do it, fair play.” I know when I was at that stage, when I didn’t have kids, I’d be so bored listening to people talking about their kids! We’ve just been very lucky in that we really get on really well together off air, and hopefully that translates on air. The last few weeks have been kind of bonkers because Roz got married and then I was at Ais Bon’s wedding there last week as well. So it’s been a busy period. Ais is on her honeymoon now with myself and Roz flying solo for a couple of weeks.
Carl, you’ve opened up about your ADHD diagnosis. Do you mind talking to us about that?
To be honest with you, for me it wasn’t a huge deal. I know some people who’ve been diagnosed with it, and it was quite an emotional experience because it was a reaffirming experience for them. They realised that they’ve been beating themselves up all their life and they didn’t quite understand what was going on. Whereas for me, it was actually just more like I was just relieved, I was like, “This makes sense now”. When it comes to Quote-unquote “being on the spectrum” as such or being neurodiverse, it’s more of an understanding that everyone’s brain just works differently. So if you can do anything to help you understand the way that you’re wired, that can be just really useful. After we had our second baby, Éala, the only way I can describe it is that I went through a period where I was feeling really overwhelmed. It was getting me down because I didn’t understand the answer to the problem. I was getting annoyed at myself for not enjoying the stage of life that I was at more. I was so busy and so overwhelmed. After having a conversation with my physio, but actually he’s just become a mate, and he’s at the same stage of life as me and he was telling me about getting an ADHD diagnosis. He was explaining after his second child was born he just felt like the bandwidth to his brain was gone, and he couldn’t process anymore. And as soon as he said that it was just this lightbulb moment I was like, “Oh my God, I have ADHD.” It was exactly how he described it, all the feelings and everything. So I said, right, I’m gonna go and get tested. There are things that I didn’t realise were ADHD related. I would have always struggled as a child with my weight and even into adulthood. I would go to the gym, but I would find it hard, and I would get annoyed at myself. Then I’d have a biscuit, and end up like halfway through the pack. Whereas actually, I now understand that’s quite an ADHD trait, but like you’re chasing dopamine hits, so binge eating can be quite a big part of this. I was always a very sensitive child and that’s very much part of ADHD, high rejection sensitivity. I would still have that, where sometimes someone might say something to me, and it might not even be a criticism but I’ll pick it up as a criticism. I take it so to heart, and I’ll get really down about it. Now I can be like, “Hang on stop for a second. Do you actually need to take that to heart as much as you have done?” Understanding there’s a lot that I could be doing for myself to make my life easier has been really helpful.
Aside from the radio, you also have a podcast with your wife, How Are Ya Lovie?. What are the differences between radio and podcasting?
In the morning, I have people of all ages, of all backgrounds, listening. Our job on the Breakfast Show is to make people laugh. You want to have you know fun, and it’s okay that not everyone is gonna like what you do, but at the same time, you never wanted to offend. There are probably topics that would just be off topic on the radio that you actually can get into. It’s quick and they’re short links and particularly breakfast radio it’s all about the energy of the entire show. People are getting their day started and we’re just there to hopefully make it that little bit better for them. On the podcast, I really enjoy the whole scale of it. I love really delving into topics and really talk about things that I never would talk about on the radio. My wife’s dad passed away at the end of last year and she’s been really good at like speaking about grief and that whole process. It’s just been really useful for both of us because we’ve been able to sit down and really get into it. It helps me understand because I don’t know what she’s going through even though we live with each other, we’re husband and wife. But I don’t know how she feels because I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone that close to me.
Do you let your guard down more on your podcast because you know people are actively tuning in for your content?
Whether it’s like online content or whether it’s the radio, it’s alright for people to think that what you’re saying isn’t funny. Unfortunately, there’s just going to be people who have a go, and that’s alright. It’s more like if someone calls you out for something, and you self-reflect on it, you go, “I was out of order there”. That’s when I think it’s really important to acknowledge that. Whereas sometimes someone could text into the radio show, like “That wasn’t funny,” or you might upload something on Instagram and you have people DM me and be like You’re a clown.” That means nothing because that’s just someone who’s either a troll or actually have something else going on in their life and they just want to take it out on other people. I feel the same way across the board, whether it’s the radio show, whether it’s the podcast or whether it’s online. I have the same filter built in!
Now Carl, we know you love the Grand Stretch…
It’s something that I’ve always been completely obsessed with this time of year, especially when the clocks change! I like making the most of the bright evenings. It’s something that when I became a parent, I’ve really locked into even more. It’s so mad now during the days that there’s no time to get anything done until they’ve gone to sleep. Now I can take on a little garden project, myself and Ais, my wife, we’d oftentimes have dinner ourselves after the kids go to bed like, you know Barbecue for ourselves or whatever it might be. I’m all over this because I love the grand stretch anyway! So it’s just to remind the people to make the most out of it, and if you’re taking on any projects or if you’re doing any little bits and bobs you can get whatever you need through Amazon.
Prime Day runs June 23–26 with hundreds of thousands of deals across every category, exclusively for Irish Prime members. Find out more here.
