The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne

For the 14 years of her presidency, Mary McAleese was obliged to keep her faith and opinions private and separate from her public role. Now, in her first televised interview since leaving office, in her home on the banks of the Shannon, she speaks to Gay Byrne with extraordinary candour about how her life has shaped – and been shaped by – her beliefs and attitudes. Like a great many committed Catholics, she finds herself clinging on by her finger-tips to membership of the Catholic Church. Her faith is not in question. She meditates and goes to Mass daily; she goes on annual retreat to a convent in Ennis; Christianity is at the core of everything in her life. However, all too often, she finds that faith at odds with the structures and leadership of the Church which, she has always been taught, is the body of Christ. Not only does she feel that voices like hers are not being listened to in her Church, they are being actively silenced in a culture of “creeping infallibility.” Her book and this interview is a critique of that culture, but it is also a direct plea to the Pope to change the way the Church is run.

Former Oasis frontman – and now High Flying Bird – Noel Gallagher, talks to Gay Byrne about the things he believes in… and the things he doesn’t; plus the thoughts that make him forget his own lyrics on stage. Noel is relaxed about the fact that, having been part of the biggest band on the planet at one stage, he’s now ploughing a humbler furrow. He talks about the buzz of performing as “the ultimate high” …and having tried a few other kinds, he should know. He talks freely about his past escapades with drugs, which were pretty well a full-time pursuit until the moment he decided to stop. He talks to Gay about his brother and their famously difficult relationship and current rift.

In his first televised interview since last year’s presidential campaign, Sean Gallagher tells Gay Byrne what gave an almost-blind schoolboy failure the self-belief to run for the highest office in the land, and how he has coped with the disappointment of becoming last year’s nearly man. After several months in the spotlight, Gallagher has been more or less invisible in the months since. He reveals that he and his wife, Trish, spent a few days at a Carmelite monastery in Sligo after the election, meditating, walking and getting to know one another again. Now she has persuaded him to move to her home county of Cork and the Monaghan-born, Cavan-raised, previously Louth-based businessman says he is happy enough to pull on the red jersey of the Rebel County. A year after he came so close to winning the presidency, he tries to be philosophical. Ah, but would he go again?

One of Ireland’s most successful and best loved footballers, Niall Quinn, tells Gay how a mixture of faith, family and luck enabled him to “swim in the river without getting wet” in a sport that was rife with drink and gambling. Quinn admits he found the transition from player to ex-player tough, but hid his depression from all but his family. The death, last year, of Quinn’s close friend, Gary Speed – who hanged himself in his garage – clearly shook Niall to the core, especially given his own similar reputation as one of the game’s great optimists and gentlemen. An occasion when Niall undoubtedly demonstrated that his own priorities were in order was his testimonial, when he famously donated all the £1m+ proceeds to Crumlin Children’s Hospital, GOAL and to Sunderland-based charities. Tellingly, he reveals that, though the gesture wouldn’t have happened without his wife Gillian’s support and encouragement, the inspiration came from his Mum.

Norah Casey is one of Ireland’s leading businesswomen and in October 2011, the love of her life, her husband Richard, died of cancer. In this profoundly moving interview, she tells Gay Byrne how her Catholic faith has both been challenged and also sustained her, in the year since.