Tommy Tiernan Show recap: Comedian Aoife Dunne on losing her mother at 23
Aoife Dunne joined Tommy Tiernan on Saturday night. Picture: RTÉ/Tommy Tiernan Show.
The Tommy Tiernan Show returned on Saturday night, exploring themes of growth, connection, existentialism and grief.
Tommy Tiernan’s guests included musician Paul Brady, scientist and inventor Fionn Ferreira, and poet, storyteller and comedian Aoife Dunne.
Tiernan’s first guest of the night was Paul Brady, who arrived in the studio with one of his many guitars in hand.
Brady, who joined the Johnstons in 1967 and has been a professional musician since, discussed his musical journey, including his influence on Bob Dylan's version of
He spoke about his conversational approach to lyrics, inspired by his father's storytelling, and his preference for unique guitar tunings, explaining that he chooses guitars based on the song he wants to play.
Speaking about the lasting impact that grievances and wounds from childhood have had on his life, he discussed his songwriting process, which he said is influenced by personal emotions and significant life events.
Brady went on to discuss his preference for being a lone wolf in the music scene, rather than being part of a specific scene, and reflected on his approach to music, now being less of a perfectionist and more accepting of his creative output.
“I want to have fun now when I’m working,” he told Tiernan.
“And I don’t want to be under pressure anymore, from myself even. Although the missus would probably argue with me.” When asked in what sense, Brady explained that he got nervous before coming onto the show and that his wife said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’, he laughed.
Brady wrapped up his chat with Tiernan with a performance of a song inspired by a childhood nightmare.
Tiernan’s second guest of the night was Fionn Ferreira, who introduced himself as an inventor from West Cork.
He explained that he focuses on environmental problems, particularly plastic pollution, and believes that many issues can be solved through invention and practical solutions.
Discussing his early passion for the environment with Tiernan, he explained how he was inspired by his proximity to the seashore and the visible issues of plastic pollution.
He spoke about his curiosity, wanting to understand how things work and not just accepting things at face value.
An only child, Ferreira described his home life and how his parents were boat builders who encouraged him to build and understand things for himself, fostering his practical and inquisitive nature.
He also spoke of being bullied in school, having to move primary schools twice, and how difficult he found it to make friends.
A former Young Scientist Exhibition participant, Ferreira detailed his success in science fairs, including winning the Google Grand Prize in the Google Science Fair in 2019.
He also attended the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020, where he met Robert Downey Jr., who offered to fund his microplastic removal venture.
Touching on his love for outdoor activities, he emphasised the importance of spending time in nature to appreciate and protect the environment.
“I would say I am one of these scientists who is very practical, and I build instruments for, well, microplastic removal, but also measurement," he said.
"That’s why I’m basically in the workshop screwing things together. But I told my boss, my new boss in Switzerland, I said, ‘Hey, like, I can’t think sitting in my office. So, if it’s okay with you, when I have to do office work, I’m going to be working from home from a mountain somewhere. And if you can’t accept that, then I’ll go somewhere else.’
“And, I mean, he accepted it, luckily for him, but I feel like for me, I need to stay active in the wilderness, and only there can I really think.
“And that’s actually the first thing I say to anyone who wants to make a difference in the world or actually do something for the environment or to solve some problem, be it societal or whatever, is to go outside or go to the place where that’s prominent, because so many people are telling me about how to solve some big environmental problem.
“And I feel like too few people actually go outside and enjoy the environment that we’re also kind of destroying. And I think if more people could fall in love with the environment, and I think the best thing perhaps we could do for the environment is to promote younger people to go outside more and spend more time outside, then I think we could have a totally different view of the world.”
Tiernan’s final guest of the night was storyteller and comedian Aoife Dunne, who spoke about a traumatic time in her life — losing her mother at the age of 23.
Dunne told Tiernan that she had been backpacking in South America with her best friend in 2010 when she received the call that her mother had passed.
She spoke about the shock of receiving the news in public and having to face the long journey home.
She highlighted that while she was going through the worst time of her life, she saw the best in humanity, speaking highly of the air stewards on her flights, who she said went above and beyond.
“My body was making sounds that I don’t think I’ll ever recreate again because it’s this deep, it’s like all of a sudden you forget why you’re going home, and I might be fine for a second, and all of a sudden it hits me and the sounds I was making I was so embarrassed about crying.
“So when we got on the Air France flight we were in between two people, a mother and father and the kids were in front and I was like, ‘Oh my god, Sorcha, I’m going to scare everybody because I’m going to be crying so much.
“And then she spoke to the air stewards and the flight was full. But everybody moved around so that we had a private kind of seat down the back and the air stewards were so sweet and so lovely.
“I honestly saw, in the hardest journey of my life, I saw the best in humanity.”
She spoke of reaching home, and how the local community in Kinvara had lined their walls along the country road to her home with candles, and how it is a stand-out memory for her of that time.
Dunne spoke to Tiernan about how she stepped into the mothering role for her siblings and talked about how she put her life and dreams on pause while she grieved.
Dunne is now two years into doing what she loves again, after a 12-year break, and kicks off her new stand-up tour later this year. Dunne will play Limerick, Kilkenny, Galway, Cork, Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Louth from March to May this year.
Closing out the show was a band which Tiernan said he was really impressed by when he first came across them at All Together Now last year – Irish folk band Madra Salach who performed their song
