6 talking points from The Late Late Show, including The Traitors and Liam Neeson on Catherine Corless
Among the guests to join Patrick Kielty on Friday night's Late Late Show were Siobhán McSweeney, Danny O'Donoghue and Caitriona Balfe. Liam Neeson and Catherine Corless also joined Kielty in the studio.
returned to our screens for a new season on Friday night and saw a star-studded line-up of guests join host Patrick Kielty in studio.
Guests included Siobhán McSweeney, host of the hugely popular actor Liam Neeson, historian Catherine Corless, The Script frontman Danny O'Donoghue, and this year's All-Ireland senior football champions.
Host of Siobhán McSweeney, joined Kielty to talk about the show’s popularity and the difference the cast makes to how the game plays out.
The massively popular show returned to our screens on Sunday, August 30, and people across the country have been glued to it ever since.
While this season has been noticeably different from last season — mostly because the faithful were onto an impressive streak of catching traitors in the beginning — the tension has increased in recent episodes.
McSweeney said it is “absolutely bizarre” to watch it back after filming.
She said that people think that everything is edited or that there is a certain narrative spin, but that in fact everything you see is true to what happened in the castle.
“It’s remarkable to watch them. They’re a lovely lot, aren’t they?,” she said of this year’s contestants who are all battling it out to win the prize pot.
When asked what makes a good traitor, she said that the people playing the game decipher what being a good traitor is as the dynamic changes depending on the group.
“I know I would be rubbish at it. I know I’m glued to it even though I was there at the time,” she said.
Touching on the Irish-isms that exist in the show that no other version of The Traitors will match, including tractors, sheep, trad music, slang in the Irish language and plenty of curse words, McSweeney said it was “really beautiful” that so many Irish speakers take part this year and spoke to each other in as Gaeilge.
Some of cast were also present in the audience, including Janet, who was recently ‘murdered in plain sight’ on the show by traitor Pairic O.
“It was an amazing experience. Once in a lifetime. I can’t believe I got to be in that castle,” she told Kielty, also acknowledging how she knew right away that she had been murdered when it happened.
McSweeney also spoke about the popularity of the shows she has worked on, saying she still can’t comprehend how popular is and said similarly, it was never predicted how popular the first series of The Traitors Ireland would be.
The men responsible for breaking a 75-year curse on Mayo’s senior football team joined Kielty in the studio on Friday night.
The senior All-Ireland winning football team spoke about how they have become known for setting the bar for how they have celebrated their All-Ireland win.
Players said that one of the highlights was appearing alongside The Saw Doctors at this year’s Electric Picnic which they said was a surreal experience.
Mayo defeated Kerry with a score of 1-20 to 1-17 at Croke Park at the final whistle on All-Ireland final day on July 26.
The win marked a first All-Ireland Senior Football title for Mayo in 75 years.
Speaking about the speech he delivered at the Hogan Stand steps on the day, Jack Cogne acknowledged how much the win meant to so many.
“Victory was for everyone in Mayo and across the world,” he said.
Siobhán McSweeney, who is known for using her voice to speak up for injustices, recognised the great privilege she has, and honour, to be able to speak out about important issues.
“Something that I want to talk about is about Bessborough in Cork,” she said.
She was met with applause from the audience when she explained why she wanted to speak up about the current situation with the former mother and baby home site.
“Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork is in the process of being developed, and the majority of people who know about this, but there's a lot of people who don't know about this, feel that there should be a compulsory purchase order.”
Admiring people such as Catherine Corless, the Irish historian known for her work in compiling the information concerning the deaths of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, who later appeared on the show, McSweeney said: “We are blessed with the people who dedicate their time to do things that should already be done.”
“The compulsory purchase order for Bessborough in Cork City should be done. This site should be used for what the survivors and people involved in a decree think it should be used for. It is a memorial site," she said.
"It is a site of state-sanctioned and religious murder; let's call a spade a shovel here. I understand that we don't want to look at it. I don't want to look at it, but we can't let private developers take the opportunity for healing away from this country."
The date for this year’s was revealed on the show.
People up and down the country, and diaspora across the globe, will gather around the TV on December 4 for the most magical night on the Irish calendar.
Revealing the news on Friday’s show, Kielty asked Outlander actor Caitriona Balfe to officially press the button to start the countdown to the
Balfe joined Kielty to chat about her new movie, which she stars in alongside Daisy Edgar Jones.
Kielty also reminded those who wish to apply to be part of all the magic of night that they have just over a week to do so.
Applications are still open for performers and toy demonstrators and will close at midnight on Sunday, September 27.
Liam Neeson joined Kielty, alongside historian Catherine Corless to speak about the production of a new film based on the investigation into the Tuam babies scandal.
Directed by Frank Berry, written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and co-produced by Liam Neeson, is based on article ‘The Lost Children of Tuam’ by Dan Barry, published in 2017.
The film focuses on Corless, played by Monica Dolan, who, whilst researching the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam for a local historical society, uncovered a devastating possibility that as many as 796 children had been buried in unmarked graves on the property.
The discovery rallied a campaign for justice for both victims and survivors of the home. Excavation of the mass grave began in the summer of 2025.
The pair spoke about the events that led up to the making of the film, how they met, Neeson’s interest in bringing Corless’ story to a wider audience, and the tragedy that was the treatment of women in Ireland at that time.
“Women in general, certainly up until I'd say the 1970s, were treated as second-class citizens. And if you got pregnant and had a child outside of marriage, you were less than that, as was the child, who was born, with a stigma for the rest of his or her life,” Neeson said.
Corless said that since excavation began on the site one year ago, 99 babies' bodies have been excavated, which she said has taken back the director of the site who is responsible for delivering a bi-monthly report on findings.
Neeson went on to describe the film as “a wonderful piece of work”, complimenting all those involved.
“It's just a very, very, very special film about an ordinary, extraordinary woman,” he said of Corless.
The Script took the studio back to 2008 by performing their hit
Frontman Danny O’Donoghue joined Kielty to chat about the band’s new album which O’Donoghue said had been a particularly different album to work on as their bandmate, Mark Sheehan, who passed away in 2023, is no longer recording in the studio with them.
“Obviously, Mark isn't here, but we kind of kept him around with us, and the energy and the air of him was in the studio. He had a guitar, this red Hummingbird, a beautiful guitar, kind of fiery and full of songs, quite like him. So I'd always stayed away from it because of Mark, but for this album, I picked it up one day and I just started playing it, and songs started to come out of it.
“There's always a certain amount of songs that you can have in an instrument, and I think his guitar has a lot more songs still left to write. So I've really felt him, so felt him a lot, kind of on my shoulder this time around writing.”
He also touched on the death of Glen Hansard, who O’Donoghue’s whole family was very close with, and spoke about how Hansard was there when O’Donoghue was first introduced to the music industry.
“Glenn back then, he just treated me like everybody else, like part of the crew,” he said.
Touching on what unfolded in the past week, with Irish musicians and singer-songwriters pulling out of Ed Sheeran’s tour, O’Donoghue said he is “a massive believer in free speech”.
“I think from the Irish acts that came off the tour, particularly Aaron Rowe… he's a lovely guy, and Beoga as well. I think they showed immense backbone, and particularly starting off because he's [Rowe is] playing stadiums in America, and for him to come off that at such a young age, I think is more power to him.”
He spoke about The Script’s upcoming tour and invited the artists to attend The Script's upcoming shows at the 3Arena in Dublin on October 30 and October 31.
He said he looks forward to having “a big old sing-song” with people who know their songs so well, before he takes a break in March to focus on family.
