Gary O'Donoghue

speaker

1,144 appearances 20 recordings 4 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard 7 Sep

Gary O'Donoghue’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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Desert Island Discs · Gary O'Donoghue, journalist · 14 Jun 2026 podcast

And one of his speakers was the Pet Shop Boys, and so I've chosen West End Girls.

I remember the day we went, and they took me on a Sunday, and I remember on all, you know, the whole journey telling them I wasn't going to do it and they might as well turn around now.

I think I felt slightly like I was being punished for losing my sight a bit.

I mean, that's obviously not what they were doing.

And they were just silent in the front of the car because I knew this was, well, I know now this must have been tearing them apart as well.

You know, and I went and this is this sort of big old former manor house in the middle of these sort of huge grounds.

And the way up to the dormitories was the old servant staircase up 52 stone steps.

So I was eight.

So this was six months after I'd lost my son.

No, not long at all.

And they, you know, my mother said that, you know, she could hear me bawling my eyes out as she walked down the stairs.

And that must have been hugely hard for them.

I mean, hugely hard.

I was really, well, I think I was homesick.

I think I adapted pretty quickly.

I mean, it was a huge change.

I mean...

It was a working class background I'd come from.

And these schools of blind children in those days, you know, they were modelled on the English public school system.

Complete culture shock.

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