Donncha O’Callaghan is in the next stage of his life.
He left 2FM last summer with the mass exodus of presenters. Since then he started his podcast, The Offload, with Tommy Bowe. He’s a children’s author and a TV presenter, as well as being a keen lover of fitness.
Of course, he’s a proud father to Sophie, 14, Anna, 12, Robin, 10 and Jake, nine who he shares with his wife, Jenny.
VIP Magazine sat down with Donncha at the launch of Tesco’s Stronger Starts Cooks to catch up…
Hi Donncha! How are you? Let’s chat about Tesco’s Stronger Starts Cooks!
The program runs over six weeks and it’s gonna roll out to over kind of 42 primary schools aimed at kind of fifth class. I know a report that said 92% of parents like myself would love some more exposure to cooking and education around that within the curriculum. So, to be fair to them, they have got involved and pulled up their sleeves. So there’s gonna be a six-week program that teaches. Healthy eating, healthy budgeting, kind of awareness to actually food orientation. Where does your food come from? It’s amazing. I just know my own kids. You play the old, where did this come from? And they wouldn’t have an idea, so it’s that kind of side to it. I’m delighted to be involved because I think it’s really important. The kitchen can be quite a good classroom, I’ve always felt, and just even, even small things like budgeting chat or trying to get kids to understand the value and actually home cooking compared to picking something that might be a bit more convenient. You might deem it as cheaper, but when you actually home cook and the nutritional side of it, it’s an awful lot better. So yeah, aim towards kind of fifth class students. I just know my own kids would absolutely love it. And then it finishes off for the day where they go to their local Tesco and they do a budgeting challenge. They get to spend around the shop and also see where everything comes from, from farm to the store, which is great.
That sounds great. Even as an adult, it’s hard to know what food we should be eating!
I totally agree. I think we kind of get bombarded with different messages and, you can actually go away from realizing what’s good. But I think Irish people know and they have a general, kind of good principles around food. I think our knowledge is quite good, but I think I’d agree with you. The message can get clouded because everyone is shouting and roaring loudly about different things or different ways to eat and stuff like that. But if you pull it back to just the basic principles, and I always find if you teach stuff in school, it ripples to the rest of the family. You know what I mean? I just think that my daughter, Robin comes back with a bit of info. So it informs the whole place and everyone tries to be a little bit healthier and smarter, their own choice.
Would you be a bit of a chef yourself?
Do you know what? I am thankful that rugby probably gave us knowledge of it. But I think 50 per cent would say that if their kids had to make a meal from scratch, they don’t know how they’d fare. And I think that would be kind of quite accurate. We were lucky. In rugby, you get unbelievable kind of information and critiquing. But that’s because it’s your job. Whereas I think just people want support a little bit more. It’s great if you went to secondary school and had the option of something like home economics, but I think there’s certain life skills that are worth knowing.And definitely cooking is one of them that would stand anyway.
We have these grand ideas about getting our kids involved in the kitchen. But they can make things a bit more difficult!
No, I agree with you. And that’s why baking is the big one around here. Pretty much trying to find every pot or pan or everything to get it dirty, you end up with a few rice crispy buns that aren’t even baked that took like four hours. The place is like a bomb hit. It’s probably trying to have a bit of a balance in it, isn’t there? And the fact that I always think if things are happening in school, it sets up good principles for everyone else. And that’s what I like about this program. It’s kind of led by teachers and nutritionists and, and dieticians. So you’re getting the best of kind of backing in terms of one education and two. You know that it’s definitely going to be the right message coming across. It can be frustrating and take it on your own, but if you’ve a little bit of support and if they do something themselves in school that you can bring on, be great.
You’ve had big changes the last 12 months, leaving 2FM. How has life been for you?
Life’s been good. It’s been really good. I’ll be honest with you, I started wearing glasses two years into Breakfast because I thought at the age of 46, my eyesight was going a little bit, and what I actually realized it was just fatigue. But after two weeks of finishing B Breakfast, I didn’t need to wear glasses anymore. My eyeballs didn’t feel like they were burning as much. I definitely miss the team we had, it was quite remarkable. And of course, I would see Doireann and Carl. We don’t really lose those kind of people. You just communicate with them differently. We used to spend the mornings with each other. Now we just spend more time on WhatsApp slagging each other. I definitely miss them. I miss that team. I’m so thankful for the opportunity. It was time to move on and, and look to something else I’m busy out with the podcast with Tommy Bowe and doing a few kids’ books, which is a bit of fun.
Could you have ever imagined being a published author?
I pinch myself, because I personally, and maybe it’s my ego, I feel like I’m known for rugby. But what’s happening more and more is I see kids and I see their parents explaining to them that I used to play rugby, but they know me for things like for this family or the book or different things that we’ve done on TV, some of the hidden camera shows and stuff like that. And they wouldn’t have any knowledge that I played rugby. I’m like, “Hold on a second, I won a Grand Slam”. They’re like, “Get out of it. You’re the silly man that hangs around Anna Geary and Davy Fitz”. Yeah, it’s different, but I must say I enjoy it I just kind of made a conscious effort when I came away to rugby, to be able to stand alone from it. I think it can be quite easy to stay within the system there a little bit, but I just kind of wanted to test myself and push myself a little bit.
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You have four kids yourself, Sophie, Anna, Robin and Jake and you’re an active man yourself. What advice would you give to help get little ones active.
There’s so much distraction now and so much. To make sitting in quite easy. I’ll be honest with you, don’t feel it’s anyone else’s responsibility. Of course, you’d love to have programs like this and you’d like the government and stuff to help with that. But I think when it’s your kids, it’s kind of a better responsibility to just make sure that you are setting a good example. And I think it doesn’t have to be an awful lot. People get so many mixed messages that you’d be climbing mountains and kayaking and stuff like that, but that’s not the case. Maybe just making time for a little bit, it could be a family walk or a family cycle or even just bringing the dog out, the whole lot of ye. I don’t mean to sound patronizing in any way, but I feel that’s where you actually make a few connections with each other. And you also hear the real stories that you don’t when you’re sitting down with the telly. So it’s just probably making that little bit more time to kind of get outside and just make sure you’re probably doing something you like. Get a pair of roller skates. That’s my new thing. Get my kids to teach me how to roller skate is probably it.
Roller skates! It really is all go!
It’s all those little wins and we’re the same. We’re at the moment obstacle courses are all the go around our places. Ray Goggins is nothing on this, but leaving, leaving the kids lead it. You know what I mean? Like it’s your, it’s your obstacle course. You tell us what we’re doing.
To find out more about Tesco Stronger Starts Cooks programme, visit their site.
