Miriam O’Callaghan is standing in front of us laughing in her underwear. This may seem like an unnecessary disclosure, it’s not. The stripped-down version of Miriam, as she tries on outfit after outfit from a rail of curated clothes, says so much about the type of woman this esteemed broadcaster is: easygoing; shameless; fun. Bright and brilliant, she’s always engaged, and equally is engaging company.
She would make the best President – though we won’t be seeing her in the Áras anytime soon, she tells us exclusively here today. Today, we’ve taken over the Presidential Suite (but of course!) at Anantara The Marker Dublin, for this very special shoot, three months before the release of her much anticipated and long awaited, memoir, Miriam: Life, Work, Everything, which will be released to deserved hype on October 30th. The book is “nearly” written she tells us, though it has taken her 20 years to finally commit her story to paper.
In this very candid and lovely chat she tells us about the writing process, about her 25 years of marriage, her 30 years (next year) of Prime Time, how she’s obsessed with ratings, is fiercely competitive and how minding her grandkids is so much more stressful than raising eight children!
Ready? Let’s dive in…
Miriam, how’s life?
Busy! Every time I meet VIP I think I’m going to be less busy next time, but I’m busier than I’ve ever been!
Well, you are writing a memoir! Being as busy as you are, when are you finding the time to write? In the margins of the day?
Yes, in the margins! I wrote most of the book very early in the morning. I’d go up to the top bedroom in the house, which we have as a study, at about 5.30am, and I’d write until I went to work. Then I’d write until late in the evenings on the evenings when I wasn’t working presenting Prime Time. So that’s when I’d write – very early and very late.
Are you able to focus for lengthy periods of time?
Yes, I’ve very good concentration. I could do a five-hour block.
How have you structured the book and divided up your life?
You’ll just have to wait and read it! But I just wrote it – though it did take me 20 years! Penguin Publishers gave me a contract 20 years ago so it’s taken me a while – because I was always very busy!
With your eight children all out of school now, a little chink of time showed itself and that’s where this book has fitted in…?
Yes, that’s true, my youngest has just finished his first year in college and sometimes I don’t know myself. And then when I’m with my two grandchildren I’m reminded of how full on it is with small children! I’m constantly terrified the one-year-old is going to fall down the stairs! It’s just a completely different worry when your children are older. So, yeah, my youngest guy is in college, though I still have four lads at home because they are all students, so there’s still a lot of washing and ironing!
Ah surely Miriam O’Callaghan has them doing their own laundry!
[laughing] They all do all their own ironing and washing – not! They’re lovely lads and they all make their own beds; I think I’ve beaten that into them at least!
What do they think of you writing this memoir?
They couldn’t care less [laughing]! Boys are funny, every so often they’ll say, ‘What are you writing?’, and I’ll say, ‘My book’, and they’ll go, ‘Oh yeah’! They couldn’t care less – in a good way! – I’m just their mother, they don’t watch Prime Time or anything like that and I don’t even think they know I have a radio show!
And that’s the way you want it.
It is the way I want it, I really mean that.
So, it’s taken you 20 years to write this book, was there a moment you said, ‘Feck it, I’ll do it!’?
Patricia Deevy is my editor in Penguin, she is a fantastic person. I am blessed to have her as my editor, also because she never ever gave up on me. Every time she’d bump into me she’d say, ‘Miriam’, and tilt her head to the left and to the right and I’d say, ‘Patricia, I don’t know if I’ll ever do it’. But then I met her at The Book Awards not that long ago and she came up to me and said, ‘Miriam, what about now?’, and whatever way she said it, I went home and I started writing it the following morning.
Down through the years on TV and on your RTÉ Radio 1 show you have interviewed many writers; have you gleaned any tips from any of them?
Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright said it to me years ago, and actually Patricia Deevy said it too, ‘Stop over-thinking it and just write’. It’s like everything in life isn’t it, there I’d be thinking, sure I can’t write, I’m not a writer, but I do know my own life, it’s my life, my story, I do know it better than anybody else.
You did tell us before that you do interviews like this so you can tell your own story.
The only thing you really have control over is your own life, which is why I feel you should take control of your own narrative. From time to time, you lose control of elements of your life but by and large you control your own story. This is my one and only glorious precious life and I am so blessed with the life I have – ups and downs and all – but I love it.
Are the downs as well as the ups in the book?
Everything is in the book, otherwise it’s a lie. It would be like an Instagram portrayal of “my perfect life”, and that’s not my life. Like most people, I have had ups and downs and I wasn’t going to be not open and address everything.
And as you’ve said before, people are very open with you so therefore it’s only fair that, equally, you are open back.
I really believe that. What’s so important about me that I can keep it all to myself and yet expect everyone else to open up really honestly about their lives, and I love it when they do. I’ve learnt so much from other people being honest about how they’ve coped with loss or difficulties. I’ve always tried to be a bit open, I’ve felt it’s only right I should be because people are so open with me.
What does your wonderful mum think about you writing this memoir?
She thinks it’s great. Yesterday I took her to meet her 101-year-old first cousin. Myself and my sister Kathleen were sitting and looking at them together going, ‘Can we have some of your genes, please?!’ My mum has just turned 97. She still lives in her own home, walks up and down the stairs constantly. As my daughter Clara who is a geriatrician says, ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it’. So, my mum listened to her. My mum is incredibly independent, she does everything for herself, reads The Irish Times from cover to cover and The Sunday Independent too. She knows more about the world than I do and is still really opinionated.
Will she be one of the first to read the book?
I think she will be.
What about your husband Steve? Has he got any sneaky glimpses of chapters?
He gets a glimpse! But he’s a bit like his sons! They leave me well enough alone! ‘The fewer mentions the better, love’, he says!
Steve is home nearly a year now from BBC Scotland, and is currently working in a senior leadership role in RTÉ as Director of Video, is it great to have him back?
Yeah, he was away for over a decade. People always ask, is it a big change now to have him back, but no, because I was always so busy. That said, it is nice to have him around. But he’s quiet, he’s a quiet man, he lets me do my own thing – what’s not to like about that?!
You are married 25 years this year, are you doing anything special to mark it?
Yes, we’re married 25 years this year but together 30. We might go away for the weekend…but we’re kinda low key, we might just go to the local Indian in Glasthule!
30 years of Prime Time next year, that’s a long aul stint!
Yes! It’s incredible, isn’t it? And a lot of people that started with me are still around. And it’s still a really good show, but I would say that, wouldn’t I?! Good journalism, good journalists, we’ve been through a lot together.
Three decades interviewing politicians, what’s that like, listening to them deflect questions, is there an art to it?
I find some don’t deflect. I always say you’re better off being direct and trying to answer the question. Because most people watching, or listening, are very fair and if you give it a shot at trying to be honest, people by and large, recognise that. But they don’t like it when you’re pretending to answer something.
Do you love interviewing people?
I do. I love reading the interviews in the papers also because I learn so much from other people. I should be reading all the news and all the terrible stories in the world, but I just ignore them and go straight to the interviews about their lives and their tragedies because I constantly want to learn.
According to a new study, curiosity is a vital trait for longevity so being nosey makes us live longer!
Great! I might get to 150!
Speaking about figures, we know you are obsessed with your ratings…!
Oh, yeah [laughing] they laugh at me in RTÉ, I always know the figures for our TV shows and my radio show! I mean what’s the point in doing something if nobody is watching you or listening to you?!
Luckily your figures are always good but how will you deal with it if they dip?
I just won’t let them dip!
But, if they did, or do, how do you get them back up?
Sometimes you might have a show that doesn’t rate particularly well, then you do maybe a really big interview – in my case, a big human-interest interview always rates well – and then you’re right back up there and I’d be like, [punches the air] ‘Yes’! I’m terrible, I’m ridiculously competitive! I’m an annoying person! I even remind my colleagues how much the figures matter! But look, television audiences have changed, people now watch in different ways, but a lot of people still watch live news and when you do general elections the figures are huge and we’ll have a presidential debate this year too, which I’m looking forward to – particularly because I won’t be in it myself [laughing]!
How long has that rumour been bouncing around for?
A long time!
They say there’s no smoke without fire, so what was the ember that sparked it?
I was researching it for my book and that’s why I know it goes back a long time – I blame the polls, like internal polls done by parties which then got picked up by the bookies, and then it becomes a story that doesn’t go away! So, blame the bookies [laughing]!
So, there was never any truth to it?
Read my book [roars laughing]! But no – messing aside – I’ve been forced to think about things, I’ve been forced to make my brain work, and polls and bookies were to blame. But about my brain, by and large my brain rests when not working. I’m very good at turning off my brain! And I recommend that to everyone, don’t use it unless you have to!
Elaborate further on this brain resting hack, how do you do it?
I just think about nothing! I don’t worry about anything! Obviously, I think, ‘I need to drive home safely’, I think, ‘I’m going out to see my mother this afternoon’, but I don’t over-work or over-worry my brain, ever. I think people worry way too much in this world. I mean there are times we all need to worry, but wait for those times, don’t worry before you need to worry because there will be plenty of times when you have to!
That’s a real mindset though and some people are more adept at not worrying than others.
I agree. Some people are much more naturally worriers, and it’s very hard to switch that off. But I am blessed, I am like my father, he was not a worrier, ever.
The brain will be properly resting this month now as the radio show is off air for August and you’ll be holidaying in Portugal…
In Portugal, yes, because I’m a creature of habit! We’ve been going to the same place in the Algarve for about 27 years!
What will you do when you’re down there?
Nothing! I will do as little as possible! I barely get out of bed! I get from the bedroom to the kitchen to make myself a coffee, then out to the pool and then to the restaurant! I do nothing! People always say, oh, you’re so busy, but my happiest thing is doing sweet FA!
Do you sit in the sun?
I do sit in the sun but I mind my skin. I don’t do big sunbathing.
What books will you read?
My memoir! [roars laughing] No, I’m only joking, it won’t be ready!
Well, we’ve just finished Taylor Jenkins Reid’s, Atmosphere, it’s very good!
I’ll buy it in the airport and send you a selfie of me with it!
You’ll fly through it because you’re a fast reader, aren’t you?
Too fast! I speed read everything [laughing]!
What’s wrong with you?! What happened you to make you like this?!
James Joyce’s Ulysses would be wasted on me because I would speed read the whole thing and lose its brilliance!
How is that photographic memory of yours holding up?
Still good.
Do you do any brain games to keep it sharp?
I don’t do crosswords, but my mum is great at the crosswords. I reckon my brain is still so busy in trying to be sharp for live tv and radio. There is no margin for error. That terror keeps your brain quite sharp!
Do you still get that feeling of terror before live TV and radio?
Of course! As my mother says, ‘You know you could ruin yourself, Miriam’, and I go, ‘I know, yeah’! ‘If you just say the wrong thing once’, my mother reminds me! And I’m like, ‘Mum, I’ve managed to not do it so far’ and she’d be like, ‘But you could still do it’! Thanks, mum, for the vote of confidence! I remind myself every time I go on air, ‘It’s live Miriam, this is live’!
The terror will abate while lying by the pool in Portugal, who will be down there with you?
Loads of them! I haven’t ticked everyone off yet but at the moment there are about six. And the great thing is my daughter Alannah and the two grandkids will be there also, and my sister Kathleen and her husband and children too.
What age are the grandkids now?
One and four! They are beautiful. Éabha and Art. And the great things is the parents will be in Portugal with you too, so you haven’t full responsibility!
100 per cent [laughing]! Nana will play in the water with you and then hand you back!
You worry much more when they’re not your own children. I keep thinking, how did I mind eight kids and make sure they were okay? I must have been deranged most of the time! Or maybe it helped I wasn’t a worrier, but still.
With your youngest now 19 and just finished first year in college, this is a new chapter for you. But the phrase empty nest is not accurate anymore, there’s a whole new chapter out there to be played out. This new chapter, this new phase, we’re calling it the ‘open door’. How do you feel about that?
But I dream of an empty nest! Where is my empty nest?! No, I’m messing, I love having them around because they are so quiet and easygoing, and anyway, they are all still studying so it would be crazy for them to leave because they couldn’t afford anywhere to live. But you’re right, this new chapter is an open door.
Is it a nice chapter to be in now with them fully reared?
Yes, it’s a relief to have got them this far. All you want is for them to grow up healthy and happy. Having got them this far is a
blessing.
So, life is good?
Life is good and I feel very lucky. This year is the 30th anniversary of my sister’s death, she died in ’95. Her daughter Lizzie is getting married this year in September so that is going to be a hugely happy and emotional occasion.
What about retirement, that’s always being trotted out, but you’re not going anywhere.
I’m like Oprah Winfrey, I don’t believe in the idea. Retirement sounds like you step away from stuff. I think we only have one life and you should live it to the full and keep doing what you like as much as you can. And the day people don’t want to watch or listen, well then you should move on!
How will you deal with that? You’ll have to go before that happens!
[Laughing] I’ll be like my mum, 97 – and still on air!
