Tommy Tiernan Show recap: Paddy McGuinness on living with clinical depression
When asked about how he would describe clinical depression Paddy McGuinness said it was 'like depression on steroids'. Picture: RTÉ One/Instagram
Paddy McGuinness was the first guest in Tommy Tiernan’s hot seat on Saturday night and the comedian opened up about being diagnosed with clinical depression.
McGuinness says he received the diagnosis just as he got the job as a presenter on the BBC motoring show Top Gear and how he felt he had to mask his condition.
“I’ve got this job, which, by rights, is supposed to be the best job on Earth,” he said.
“So what rights have I got not to be happy at getting a job like this.”
When asked about how he would describe clinical depression he said it was “like depression on steroids” and he went on to give a colourful description, one which will not have earned him brownie points with singer James Blunt.
“It's almost like being at a James Blunt concert, and they've closed the exits,” he quipped.
“Then when you finally get one open and bust through it, you're in another James Blunt concert.”
He added: “He's a lovely fellow, by the way, but it's the only analogy I could think of”.
McGuinness said the only reason he got help was because is ex-wife intervened and told him: “You’re not yourself. You haven’t been yourself or ages.”
“I thought I was just a little bit stressed with work and bit irritable, but clearly I'd taken a massive turn.
“They had to tell me three times I couldn't get my head around it.”
McGuinness said he found help in the form of therapy, which he says was a bit like “do it yourself.”
“You feel like asking for your money back at the end of the session,I've done all that myself, but he's, he's done it. He's put you in the right way.”
McGuinness spoke about his relationship with his parents, who were “never a couple”. Having been raised by his mother, he said his father would visit every couple of weeks and because of it he used to think he was “everything”.
“My mum was the one instilling the rules and making sure I were in at a certain time, and, you know, kicking me ass for me every other day,” he said.
“Whereas when my dad would rock up every two weeks and he'd take me out on a Saturday, going to town, into Bolton, he'd buy me a little toy car or something.”
He said as a child he always saw his father as a happy man, but as he grew older he realised “he's not to bring a child up 24 hours a day”.
“It's my bloody mum who did everything for me… When I think back to me childhood, I kind of think, Oh, bloody hell. I wish I could have really spoiled her for giving up her life.”
McGuinness said it wasn’t until he was at his father’s funeral that he found out his dad had other children before his relationship with his mother.
“I was at my dad's funeral, and, this like, older bloke, came up to me ‘I’m your brother’ and I'm like ‘Christ’. And then a couple of women came up ‘we’re your sisters’.”
Next up was academic and former Rose of Tralee Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, who spoke about being stalked over a period of two years by a member of staff at University College Dublin and why she went public about her experience.
“It’s not something that I like to dwell on but I understand it’s an important part of my life experience now, to reflect on,” she said.
“What I really wanted to do at the end of it was to make sure that nobody else was going to have the same experience that I had out of it.
“That's why I went public, because I was like, I have a platform. I understand how to make a headline out of this, so that it might put pressure on people to change things.”
When asked about what things needed to change, Ní Shúilleabháin said: “It was to change policy on sexual harassment in the workplace.
“I got to speak to the minister for higher education at the time, and he made it a big deal for universities to make sure that there were policies in place to make sure that there wasn't sexual harassment happening for students and for staff.
“But I also know that policies are things on paper, and you have to have action coming behind them.”
Ní Shúilleabháin said that it shone a light on academic institutions being “gendered environments”.
“I felt it very much in the space of that sexual harassment, where it was just like, ‘is this not a big deal, is this in my head? Should I just be getting over this, because it's not a big thing’…But then you tell the story to your pals outside, and they're like, this is insane.”
The final guest on Saturday’s Tommy Tiernan Show was Zimbabwean Irish rapper God Knows from Clare, now based in Limerick, who wants to “make a song that’s going to impact everyone”.
“Words are my game,” the artist said.
“The closest person that I think everyone would know because of the Super Bowl would be Kendrick Lamar. That for me would be my greatest of all time.
“I want to be able to have layers to my art. I’m a wordsmith, that’s what I hinge my sword on. That’s my superpower if I am to have one.”
God Knows spoke about his inspiration for his process of creating music, saying: “I’m an Irish man, I'm a Zimbabwe man, I'm a Christian, I'm an emcee, I'm a husband… I love the idea to bring those layers to people who are willing to listen. You don't have to, but if you're willing, I'm gonna give you something.
“So I want to be able to have those great layers, but be able to translate it in such a way that someone can just bop to it and say, I don't know what he's saying, but I like it.”
God Knows was the musical artist for the evening with a performance of his song ‘The Art of Alienation’.
