"Right now the truth matters more than ever," says Miriam O'Callaghan, referring to the role of news and current affairs in helping a nation through the pandemic. Donal O’Donoghue talks to the broadcaster
"I sometimes wake up in the morning and think this can’t be happening and then I realise it is, it’s real." Like all of us, RTÉ broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan has been stunned by these unprecedented times, caught between pragmatism and disbelief, between caring for herself and her family and doing her job as a public service broadcaster.
Even doing this impromptu interview (the photos were taken long before the pandemic), had her questioning her motives, wary of being seen as 'Preachy Miriam’. But overriding those concerns is her belief that now, more than ever, news and truth matters.
"For years I’ve also said that the most important thing in life is your health," she adds. "I repeated it like a mantra. But I believe it, always have. What is happening now should make us realise that what truly matters is our health and looking after each other."
We speak by phone. O’Callaghan is at home in Dublin, preparing to drop by her mother (also Miriam) with some supplies. Like many others, she and her siblings have set up a roster to ensure that her mum stays connected and safe. While the world may be turned upsidedown, it goes on in many other ways.
Earlier that morning, Miriam dropped her husband, Steve Carson, to Dublin airport for his usual Monday red-eye flight to Glasgow, where he works as boss of BBC Scotland. And the day after we speak, St Patrick’s Day, there would be yet another special edition of Prime Time, with O’Callaghan and co-host David McCullagh in the hot seats.
"In all my years in current affairs I’ve never known a time like this," she says of a career that has spanned the BBC, ITV and RTÉ, from covering the Troubles to the recent general election. Since 1993, Miriam O’Callaghan has been part of the RTÉ current affairs team. Back then, she wore her hair hippy-style, still worked part-time for the BBC (Newsnight) and apart from pioneers like Olivia O’Leary and the late Marian Finucane, was one of the few prominent female broadcasters in the country.
For the 1997 general election, this magazine’s cover featured an image of the key RTÉ journalists covering the count and coverage: all male, apart from O’Callaghan. Since then, the broadcaster has anchored umpteen elections, chaired many leadership debates and as far back as 2010, she was touted as a potential Presidential candidate (at the time, her brother, Jim, now a Fianna Fáil TD, was a local councillor). It’s a rumour O’Callaghan has always refuted, saying she has no political ambitions.
For now, she serves public service broadcasting, a marquee name to keep the flag flying in dark days. The morning we spoke the audience figures for the previous weekend’s top TV programmes featured six news bulletins in the top 10.
"Never before have I seen numbers like this watching the news and the truth has never been more important," says O’Callaghan. "Personally, I feel a huge sense of responsibility right now to continue to provide that service with Prime Time and to keep people informed; those who are hungry for accurate information because they are worried and anxious. So news and current affairs have never been more important. There is so much fake news out there, so it’s important that what we do on shows like Prime Time is give information that is true and accurate."
For a recent Prime Time, O’Callaghan invited Kim Roberts, a professor in microbiology at Trinity College into her home to explain what precautions people should take during the coronavirus pandemic. "There were some funny jokes online like ‘Janey this is unprecedented, we are seeing Miriam O’Callaghan in her kitchen!’’," says the broadcaster with a laugh. "We also had to move a vase of flowers from the kitchen island onto the hob for the cameras and we had people asking ‘Miriam what are you doing with a vase of flowers on your hob?’ Humour amid the uncertainty.
She recalls how some years back someone commented on her social media post of her dog beside a goldfish bowl, saying that she needed to get a bigger bowl for her fish. Miriam is a glass-half-full person, who believes that life is to be lived to the full, a way of thinking fuelled by personal experience and the untimely death of her sister Anne in 1995.
Even now, amid the uncertainty, she is upbeat. "Because most of us are at home at the moment and experiencing this mixture of fear and concern, it can also be turned into a positive because you are surrounded by your loved ones," she says.
With eight children (four from her first marriage to journalist Tom McGurk) surely it is stressful at times, even for the woman regularly touted as ‘Supermum’? "I don’t really do stress," says ‘Supermum’ with a laugh. "That sounds a bit mad but I don’t because if you and those close to you have their health, nothing else matters and right now, I and my family and my mum are healthy. Once that is OK, then I’m OK."
"I’m not a worrier," she says. "My mother says things to me like ‘Isn’t it terrible that I can’t go out?’ because she is the busiest person in Ireland. She is always down the shops and goes to Mass every day. For older people like her, it is hard right now because it is recommended that they don’t leave the home at all. We have a roster so that all the siblings go out to mum one day, but the grandchildren, of course, have to keep away. But my mother is of a generation that is stoic and resilient. She is not nervous at all. She knows that she has to stay in and stay safe. She doesn’t do panic and she doesn’t do worry. We all need to be like that generation."
Of course, there are many groups doing their bit in these straitened times, not least the medical professions, applauded on the streets of Madrid, hailed by the Taoiseach in his St Patrick’s Day address to the nation. "We all have reasons to be grateful to medical staff and this year I’m especially grateful to them," says Miriam, referring to last autumn when one of her sons got blood poisoning and was seriously ill for a number of weeks.
"He has now fully recovered but it was the team in Vincent’s Hospital who looked after him. So I know what these men and women do and never take them for granted. The whole country should be indebted to them right now, all of them, including ambulance services and all who work in the medical profession."
With a full house, are there any TV shows, movies or books Miriam would recommend for the house-bound? "Prime Time," she says jokingly (or maybe not). "We are watching the new series of Narcos: Mexico. I think it’s good to watch shows or films that are totally removed from the current situation, like Notting Hill which we re-watched the other night."
She is reticent to recommend any author (in case those she omit might be aggrieved) but says that she has a copy of How To Be Right: In A World Gone Wrong by James O’Brien on her bedside table. And she could also mention her Sunday morning radio show (or the other side of Miriam O’Callaghan, news broadcaster)."It will be a virus-free zone," she says.
The shows go on. I spoke with Miriam O’Callaghan last Monday, a long time in the midst of a global pandemic, when things are changing rapidly. On Tuesday, Leo Varadkar made his stirring Churchillian broadcast, a call for calm and solidarity. Afterwards, O’Callaghan and McCullagh were back on their frontline with Prime Time, one of three PT shows last week. And on Sunday, all going well, Miriam will once again be back on radio doing her light entertainment thing.
"We all need to try and stay as upbeat as we can, to realise that this too will pass," she says. "Stay calm, stay stoic and remind yourself that staying safe and healthy right now is all that really matters because, at the end of it all, it’s all about your health, your loved ones and looking out for others."
