Under the Influence with Bernard O'Shea: I love my family — and my dinner

"I was always confused as a child when I’d go to mass to consistently hear the word “love”, yet the only time you would see someone say it was on an imported US shows on RTÉ."

Bernard O'Shea: aware of the wariness Irish people have had for the word 'love'. Pic: Moya Nolan

My father once said: “Don’t be going around telling people you love them, they’ll think you're a weirdo.” He most definitely loved his family but came from a generation that most certainly never said the word “love”. 

I could never put my mother through the agony of telling her that I love her, because deep down, I know she would think I was dying. But my most bizarre encounter with the word “love” was nearly 20 years ago when I was working as a night porter in a Dublin city centre hotel.