Tommy Tiernan Show recap: Dr Austin O’Carroll on deprivation in Dublin's inner city
Dr Austin O'Carroll on the Tommy Tiernan Show
GP and thalidomide survivor Dr Austin O’Carroll spoke on The Tommy Tiernan Show about his experience working as a doctor in inner city Dublin and the support he believes is needed to help deprived areas.
O'Carroll, who has founded several organisations that work to help people living in deprived areas, said his eyes were opened as a novice doctor when he realised how many people were dying “because of the drug addiction that swept through the inner city” as well as the other struggles that come with poverty.
“In areas of deprivation, people die younger, they die five or six years younger. Of their shorter lives, they spend more time with ill health, they spend twice as long with ill health.”
While centuries of poverty in a place like Dublin can be a factor, he said government policies have not been helpful.
“If you don’t hope or don’t have expectations, that kills you.”
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 20, 2024
Dr Austin O’Carroll talks to Tommy about the importance of hope and says it’s the key thing in helping people get out of poverty.#TommyTiernanShow @Tommedian pic.twitter.com/7VAbkI98lT
“Our economic policies promote inequality,” he said, adding that people tend to “blame people for being poor” as a society.
O'Carroll said more needs to be done to provide health and education resources in poorer areas and to educate people about drug use, explaining many people living in deprivation use drugs like heroin “to self-medicate. In other words, it's a method of healing their own trauma.”
Earlier in the show Tiernan spoke to opera singer Celine Byrne about religion and mental health.
Byrne sees religion “kind of like mindfulness” in her life and said it has helped her when she felt low, citing times she felt physical pain from her mental health struggles.
“It is just horrible. Feeling like that's just it and being really upset. It's just a pain, it really is. It's a real pain in your heart and in your gut. And then a numbness, thinking you’re never going to come out of it.”
Celine Byrne tells @tommedian how she always thinks of her dad when performing Mimi’s famous death scene in La Bohème #TommyTiernanShow @celinesoprano pic.twitter.com/dRsAn0qrPe
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 20, 2024
Tiernan compared Byrne’s experience with a similar one of his own at a stressful time when his “mind felt like it was being fried” but he said praying did not help him to feel better.
“I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I got down on my knees and had a Bible up on the bed because I was in need of help — and nothing happened.”
Byrne commented that each person “has to find the right help and, within yourself, find your own coping mechanism that can deal with those issues that you're having.”
Tiernan also spoke with television presenter and actor Bradley Walsh who discussed his career, including his time presenting the quiz show The Chase, and his work with his son, Barney.
“He is the man I always wanted to be.” 😍
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 20, 2024
Bradley Walsh talks about his relationship with his son and Gladiators’ co-host, Barney@tommedian @BradleyWalsh#TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/dF7WZGIHoP
Walsh said he enjoys acting but not the idle time spent waiting around on sets, which is why he now tries to both produce and act to keep busy and said he hopes to do more directing too. He said another challenge he would enjoy is to perform in a musical on the West End, ideally as Fagan in Oliver.
Walsh says working with his son, Barney, is “one of the most wonderful things I've ever done”. The pair worked together on several projects in recent years, including Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad and the BBC's revival of Gladiators, which they co-present.
“You don't spend enough time on your kids, I guess, and that's payback time. I've really, really loved it.”
