Comedian Dara Ó Briain told the Late Late Show about his summer at the Paris Olympics cheering on Team Ireland. Ó Briain attended several events as a fan, including the men’s pommel horse final and the rowing. At one stage, he said he met sprinter Michael Johnson through the BBC’s Gabby Logan, which led to an amusing miscommunication.
“You’re like Snoop Dogg for the Irish team,” Logan said when meeting him during the competition, referencing his dedication to supporting his country’s athletes. Logan was working in the BBC’s dedicated broadcasting area at that moment and Michael Johnson, the American Olympic champion, was standing nearby. Ó Briain said he asked Logan for an introduction but said some crucial context was left out when he was meeting Johnson.
“We started shaking hands, and Gabby goes, ‘Michael, this is Dara. He’s like Ireland’s Snoop Dogg.’ And then we got the photograph and I left, and literally the following day I realised we didn’t give him any more context than that. We just gave him that one phrase. So Michael Johnson left that event going, ‘Oh, wow. I just met Ireland’s hip hop star, he really doesn’t look the way you expect him to.’”
Ó Briain’s latest tour is coming to Ireland next year, with dates including Cork and Dublin — with Olympic gold medalist Rhys McClenaghan among the Vicar Street attendees.
TV presenter Angela Scanlon was on the Late Late to discuss her upcoming documentary on anorexia for RTÉ, which is airing Monday evening. Her motivations for documenting the topic include her own battle with anorexia and bulimia over 15 years.
“I would love anyone sitting at home in the depths of it, in a lonely, horrible place, to know that it’s messy and it’s complicated and it takes a long time, but that actually, you can come out the other end,” she said.
Scanlon also addressed the scandal at Strictly Come Dancing during the year she participated as a contestant. Last year, actress Amanda Abbington complained about her dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, and this year the BBC issued an apology to Abbington. Scanlon said she was unaware of any issues while she was filming for the series.
“The truth is, even though you’re all in the same series, you don’t really see each other. You’re in a training room pretty much 12 hours a day, all independent of each other. And then [when] you see each other, you all nod and smile. You get on well, but you’re not really privy to what goes on in a training room,” she said, adding that “complicated, big personalities” and “questionable methods” may have been in the mix in a “highly pressurised” environment.
Galway hurler Joe Canning spoke about the recent arrival of his baby girl, the loss of his mother, and his hurling career.
Baby Josie — named after his late mother Josephine — was born four months ago and Canning says his mother “lives on” through his daughter.
“It’s nice to remember her through Josie,” he told Patrick Kielty, describing his mother as “a silent, strongwilled kind of a woman”.
He said his parents’ pride was a huge source of motivation when he was playing intercounty hurling.
“When I was playing, and still play now, it’s to see the look of pride on your parents’ face. That’s pretty special to see. That was all worth it.”
The interview ended with the arrival of a cake to mark Canning’s birthday — in the shape of a hurley and sliotar, of course.
what a line up 🤩#latelate pic.twitter.com/6Tq3Y43azI
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 11, 2024
Mayo aeronautical engineer Norah Patten spoke about her journey to becoming the first Irish person in space.
She was inspired to pursue a career in space by a visit to Nasa aged 11, and was recently selected for a suborbital research flight where she will be joined by crewmates Shawna Pandya and Kelly Gerardi.
“It’s literally been 30 years of progressing, year by year: undergraduate aeronautical engineering, PhD, International Space University, and then in 2017 I joined my research institute, IIAS,” she said.
Patten spoke about the importance of outreach and education and said she hopes to bring elements of Irish culture to space, including a song if U2 are willing to collaborate with her.
“I wholeheartedly know I carry the Irish flag to space with a lot of weight, and I’m just so thankful to have that opportunity,” she said.
“I’ve spoken with some artists. I’ve reached out to U2 in the hope they might write me a song that I can take to space. We have such a rich Irish culture and that has to be part of the flight.”
Finally, Nicola Hanney, a survivor of domestic abuse, spoke about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-partner, a former garda.
Paul Moody, who is due to be released from prison later this year, was sentenced to over three years in prison for coercive control — one of the first people in the State to be convicted of this type of abuse.
“Tell someone you trust. Whether it be your family, a stranger, your friend.”
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised tonight, resources can be found at https://t.co/r70yKUaQmw #latelate pic.twitter.com/YCNwh7J1xP
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 11, 2024
Hanney said she started to see red flags when she realised she was pregnant after they broke up.
“It was a bittersweet moment I would say. I was starting to see the red flags and I knew I couldn’t be in a relationship with this man. I just didn’t know what to do,” she said.
She added that he was removed from the hospital after she had given birth when a nurse overheard “soul-destroying” comments he made about her.
“It was just so cruel. The things he was saying… I definitely felt the pain when he said to me, ‘I just came here to watch you bleed to death’. The things he was saying, you definitely wouldn’t say to a woman that was having your baby.”
The abuse continued after her son was born, turning physical. She said she feels lucky to be alive today and urged anyone in a similar situation to seek help.
