What a Difference a Day Makes: A phone call with my mam gave me focus when I needed it

Luke Thomas tells Helen O’Callaghan about a phone call he made to his mum in a moment of crisis and how her words steadied him – keeping him on course in a way that had a far-reaching impact, both personally and professionally.

Luke Thomas at House Dublin on Leeson Street, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney

Everybody has these moments, like a fork in the road. Mine was a phone call with my mam, the first day of my first job after college, when I started working in the Guinness Storehouse.

I’d been very unhappy for a while coming up to that. My parents had separated a few years earlier, an amicable separation, but I had a lot of feelings about it that I’d buried. Music as a teen had been a distraction from my feelings.