Saturday with Miriam O'Callaghan: 'The Kingdom is my happy place'

"If we’re not spending Saturday in Dublin my ideal place to be is Dingle. My dad was from Kerry so I love the Kingdom, it’s my happy place. I’m a creature of habit – we have been going to the Dingle Skellig Hotel for years."

Sat, 08 Nov, 2025 - 01:00

Ruth O'Connor

09.30

I wake up at about 9.30am. I’ll brush my teeth and cleanse my face. Then I’ll go downstairs to make myself and my husband Steve some coffee, toast and fruit – I do Saturdays and he does Sundays.

I love Saturdays because I can lie in. Most mornings I’m up at 7.30am, including Sundays as I’m presenting Sunday with Miriam on RTÉ Radio 1.

I spent decades getting children up for school Monday to Friday so even though my youngest boy is 19, in college and gets himself up, I still get up at 7.30am even if I might not have to be at work till 10am.

10.00

Most people think I pack a lot in but my preferred default position is to do nothing, so I try to do as little as possible on a Saturday morning.

I will lie in bed, read all the papers on my phone, listen to the radio, have a shower and then around midday I’ll make a fry for my husband and my three student sons who still live at home.

If we’re not spending Saturday in Dublin my ideal place to be is Dingle. My dad was from Kerry so I love the Kingdom, it’s my happy place. I’m a creature of habit – we have been going to the Dingle Skellig Hotel for years.

I arrive there, I eat there and I’m quite happy if I don’t have to leave it other than to go for a walk.

14.30

Every Saturday I go to visit my amazing mum. She was a school principal and remains an incredibly sharp person at the age of 97. I will drive out to her house and my husband Steve will cycle out.

Sometimes we will go to Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt to do some shopping for the week. I think, and I hope, that I have inherited two key qualities of hers.

I’m told that I am extremely hardworking and my mother is incredibly hardworking and believes that is the secret to her longevity.

She is also incredibly stoic – she has had quite a lot of tragedy in her life but has never said ‘why me?’ and I really try to emulate that.

My mother is very funny and an avid reader of novels and current affairs. She knows more about the news than I do!

RTÉ Radio 1 goes on in the morning and is on all day. She has very strong views on everything, including her presenter daughter!

19.00

We always go out for dinner on a Saturday night. I love not having to cook on a Saturday evening.

We might go to a local pub like Slattery’s for a drink and then to a local restaurant for a meal.

On the nights I’m not working I’ll always cook dinner. We might go out on a Sunday for food – I like to be lazy and love going out for dinner.

Tribeca in Ranelagh has fed my family from the time my eldest daughter was a toddler so that’s one of our favourites and Steve and I have a soft spot for Rasam in Glasthule.

We usually like to stay local although we’ve rediscovered the Trocadero. We used to go there 25 years ago and now we’re back all the time again.

After dinner we will go home because I have the live show the following morning. I know some people hate the idea of having a TV in the bedroom but I love it. I like to watch news programmes late into the evening.

Because I’m working on Tuesday and Thursday nights on Primetime, and we always go out on a Saturday, we rarely go out other nights in the week.

We love our home and we love being at home – it’s an opportunity for me to rest my brain.

22.30

I tend to read a lot for my Sunday morning show as I interview a lot of writers but I love reading anyway so I’ll always have a novel on the go and I also like to read the type of long form writing that you get in the New Yorker.

I listen to podcasts but I’m not going to name them in case I leave someone out!

Because I’m an interviewer who interviews a lot of novelists, I never say who my favourites are because it’s like saying I have a favourite child.

Most people who write a novel and get published and who sell well in Ireland are super talented. The only thing I’ll say is that I tend to gravitate towards the work of female authors...

23.30

I sleep well at night. I am an amazing sleeper which I think is a great gift. I was always told I was a bit of a swot in school so I’ll always be prepared for my show the next day.

I’ll always know my brief, I’ve a brilliant team of producers, researchers and editors… I’m really lucky, but I also do the work.

Unless I’ve got a sick child, I don’t worry. Worrying doesn’t make a problem go away, it just makes you exhausted and your brain more tired. I inherited this trait from my Kerry father – he never worried and neither do I.