The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne

Multi award-winning writer, Colm Tóibín, is not a believer, but keeps returning to religious subjects in his work. Gay asks him why.

JP Donleavy’s novel The Ginger Man has been called one of the 20th centuries 100 most influential novels. And yet, on publication, it was widely banned as a debauched and decadent text. Gay Byrne talks to the 86-year-old Irish American writer about his origins in the Bronx and the experiences, ideas and beliefs that have shaped his work.

Gay Byrne interviews John Lonergan about the values and beliefs which shaped – and were shaped by – his career in Irish prisons and discovers a man more committed to the ethics of Christianity than to its creed.

In criminal parlance, Gay Byrne and Maureen Gaffney have got “previous.” The UCD Clinical Psychologist was once a regular on his RTÉ radio show, establishing her as one of Ireland’s most respected voices of informed good sense. However, she rarely talks about herself, so this is a welcome opportunity to hear what gives her life meaning.

Award-winning actor and singer, Maria Doyle Kennedy, talks to Gay Byrne about music, motherhood and commitments - marital, religious and cinematic - and the other things that give her life meaning.

Christina Noble reveals to Gay the extraordinary events and inspiration that led her, as a formerly homeless Dublin child rape victim, to devote her life to helping Asian street children.

In a unique, in-depth interview between two Irish legends, Bono talks to Gay Byrne about the life that has shaped his beliefs and values and the values and beliefs that have shaped his life.