Crediting her parents with her career success, Imelda paints a picture of a free-spirited couple, madly in love and inspiring their own kids and the whole neighbourhood with their love of dance and musical theatre. As she tells Ryan:
"They are just so brilliant. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for them and all their support and encouragement. My dad was a dance teacher, ripped out the staircase, put a spiral staircase in, wanted to do murals on the walls. Mam was always telling him to do more. And she started up the Liberties Music and Drama Group for local kids to express themselves. I mean, they are amazing people. "
Ryan asked how they were doing, as he had got to know Imelda's parents from her past visits to the Late Late Show. He was a bit taken aback when he heard that Imelda's Mam was in hospital recovering from a stroke. Her voice cracked as she told him the news:
"Mam's not good at all. So I might burst into tears in a second."
After following all the quarantine rules, Imelda says she and her daughter were lucky enough to make it back home to Dublin to before Christmas. Until then, they hadn't been home in a year. Imelda recalls how her 93-year old mother Madge had a bit of trouble recognising her over the phone on a few occasions, and the pain of this made the in-person visit all the more precious:
"She didn't a couple of times, you know, on the phone and stuff and it was heart-breaking, but she mostly does. She does, yeah, she does now and it's lovely. When I got home for Christmas she said, 'Ah, there you are', she says, 'Imelda. Where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere!' I hadn't seen her in nearly a year. And she kept saying, 'That's better, that's better.' I was delighted."
Now back in London, and separated from the family once again, music is helping to fill the aching distance between them. Imelda explains how she has been re-connecting with her Mam by singing to her down the phone:
"I rang her, and the nurses are really kind and handed the phone to Mam and I heard her saying my name and I nearly fell apart. I was singing down the phone to her. She couldn't sing back which she normally does but I kept saying would you like another one, and she'd say, 'Yeah'."
Imelda says Madge wasn't able to ask her for any particular songs, she just wanted them to keep on coming and her daughter knew what her music-mad Mam wanted without having to be asked:
"I sang to her 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'. She loves Judy Garland so I was singing her that down the phone."
Heartache over missing family aside, Imelda says her creativity is flowing in lockdown. Her new album is done and ready to be released in April and she's currently working on a book of poetry. At the beginning of their chat, Ryan and Imelda talked about the emotions of love and fear, and not surprisingly, came down on the side of love. Just how much love will be released once the pandemic is over, Ryan wondered? Imelda offered her best guess:
"Oh, we'll all be snogging the faces off each other. I think so. I think it's human nature. I think we'll be celebrating like mad. I think it'll take a while, we'll probably be a bit tense to begin with and then we'll just lose the plot and have parties constantly and everybody's houses will be full."
If you want to hear more about Imelda's friendship and collaboration with Noel Gallagher and Ronnie Wood, how both Jools Holland and Michael Parkinson gave her big breaks in the music industry and the craic she's having with her daughter in lockdown, you can listen back to the full interview here.
Imelda May's new single Just One Kiss is out now and her album 11 Past The Hour is due to be released in April.
Ruth Kennedy