Laura Dowling

And he thinks, he actually thinks I gave birth to him.

What I mean by that is that he actually does think I'm his mother.

He follows me around and apparently when I'm not in the house, which is often now, the lads say he just sits at the door and whines or sits at the window and looks out.

And every time he hears the sound of an electric car, his ears prick up because he thinks it's me.

And I didn't believe them when they told me this, but then they started taking videos of him in there in the living room, literally.

I'm not mad on cats now.

Would you just tell me a little bit about being a, inverted commas, unworried mother in the 80s and what that was?

Was that OK because your parents accepted it or was it very difficult?

This is nice, actually, because I was actually thinking, will I chat to Barbara?

Because you are of that vintage about actually growing up in the 80s when sex wasn't talked about and the shame of our bodies and there was no contraception.

Mental, isn't it?

Yes.

I had full belief it would have done too.

So were you on holidays when you got pregnant?

There is Titus Fab, yeah.

And then you as a, I hate saying that, single mother, but you as a single mother in Ireland at that time, I know you were listening to all these things on the radio and the panel discussions and all that.

But was there, did you get the sense that as you went about your day to day, did people judge you?

Were your parents worried about what the neighbours would think or what the rest of your family would think or your family?

And did you ever stay in touch with Carla's father, biological father?

No, I didn't.