My Childhood with Cormac Ó hEadhra: My five siblings and I would often playact being on TV

Journalist Cormac Ó hEadhra was raised in An Cheathrú Rua in the Connemara Gaeltacht

Cormac Ó hEadhra, says his mother, who passed last year, was a ‘force of nature and a real ball of energy’.

Cormac Ó hEadhra grew up in what he calls “two-channel land” and wonders if the lack of TV viewing options he had as a child had a part to play in making him the broadcaster he is today.

“We had no choice but to watch everything from Today Tonight and Out of the Blue with Derek Davis to The Pure Drop and Dallas,” he says. “I learned about and became interested in all sorts of things as a result, which I think stands to me now.”