Conversations with Parents
Episodes
'My children showed me what to do' — Dr. Suzanne Crowe on raising kids after loss
26 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Suzanne Crowe doesn’t even try to separate being a doctor from being a parent anymore. The president of the Irish medical council is a paediatric...
Leaving Cert stress? A psychologist, a guidance councillor and a parent share their advice
19 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s said when someone in the house is sitting the Leaving Cert, the whole house is sitting the Leaving Cert. And with the State exams almost upon t...
Coleen Nolan: ‘Everyone thought we were nuns ... and that we’d never even kissed a boy’
12 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Coleen Nolan has always had a very open relationship with her children.When it comes to having conversations with them, nothing is off the table, expl...
Dec Pierce: 'I know how toxic social media can be'
05 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dec Pierce has had a tough couple of years. The Today FM presenter and creator of Block Rockin Beats – his dance music and live gigs show - had a br...
Oisín McConville: ‘At one stage, football was the only thing that kept me alive’
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Oisin McConville was destined to get involved with Gaelic football from a young age growing up in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh in the 1980s.“The Troubles ...
Colman Noctor: ‘Behaviour is always the signpost to a problem. It is very rarely the problem’
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Colman Noctor is a well-known child and adolescent psychotherapist, so you’d be forgiven for presuming with all this expertise at hand that he alway...
Sarah McInerney: When I told my manager I was pregnant he said, ‘Can’t be helped I suppose’
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah McInerney is known for her self-assured, cool and calm approach to interviewing politicians, but on the first episode of the brand new season of...
Coming soon: Season three of Conversations with Parents
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Conversations with Parents from The Irish Times and parenting journalist Jen Hogan is coming back with a new season. Season three will feature an...
Richie Sadlier: 'My kids will be sick of me mentioning the word sex, when they're teens'
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Former footballer Richie Sadlier is now better known for his career as a psychotherapist and working with young people in the area of sex education an...
Miriam O’Callaghan: ‘I’m lucky to have eight children after suffering secondary infertility’
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam O’Callaghan says she understands that having eight children is a source of fascination for people. And where once she might have been bothere...
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: ‘We were going out six weeks when we found out I was pregnant’
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sophie Ellis-Bextor wasn’t expecting to have a baby so soon into her relationship with her now husband, but she says there was a part of her that fe...
Chris Hadfield: 'I have an Irish granddaughter and I couldn't be more delighted'
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Hadfield has a granddaughter in China and, as of earlier this year, another granddaughter here in Ireland. But despite the distance, the retired...
Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin: 'My mum was mortified I was breastfeeding in a restaurant'
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin says she and her husband would have had a fourth child, but for her debilitating pregnancies. The scientist and broadcast...
Ciara Kelly: ‘A consultant shamed me for being an unmarried, pregnant junior doctor’
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ciara Kelly was on in a bar on a sun holiday when she found out she was pregnant. 1999 was a time when Ireland was becoming more liberal, but being an...
Prof. Donal O’Shea: “I’ll be advising my girls to go on HRT”
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Being a hormone doctor wasn’t actually much help when it came to parenting three girls, according to Donal O’Shea. He’s an expert in how hormone...
Fintan O’Toole: ‘I would have loved to have been a stay-at-home dad’
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do fathers get a raw deal? Are men complicit in the detrimental effect that having children can have on women’s careers? And what exactly is an afte...
The toughest challenge of their lives: Conversations with Parents season two
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Conversations with Parents from The Irish Times is coming back with a new season. Last year Jen Hogan spoke to interesting people about the harde...
Coming soon: Season two of Conversations with Parents
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Conversations with Parents from The Irish Times is coming back with a new season. Last year Jen Hogan spoke to interesting people about the harde...
Conversations with Parents - the debrief
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Does parenting with the seemingly never-ending juggle of work, home-life, and trying to be everything to everyone, actually get any easier? What about...
Séamas O'Reilly: 'My son is the same age I was when my mum died'
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Séamas O'Reilly is an award-winning writer who shot to fame for his story of accidentally serving drinks to former president Mary McAleese while high...
Black Paddy: 'I want to teach my children to love the colour of their skin'
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black Paddy wants to teach his children self-acceptance; to love their bodies and their skin colour. The comedian and social media star is best known ...
Terry Prone on allowing son Anton Savage to be in her publicity as a child: ‘I think it was the wrong thing to do’
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author, broadcaster and chairman of The Communications Clinic, Terry Prone, may live a quiet life now but she's faced the kind of challenges you could...
Ivan Yates: 'My children struggle with what I do'
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ivan Yates is known for his controversial views on all manner of issues, and parenting is no different. The broadcaster admits the number of nappies h...
Victoria Smurfit: 'Micromanaging your kids makes them useless. Same for men.'
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria Smurfit believes to get by in life, "you need kindness, comedy and grit." The Hollywood actor, writer and producer has three children and tel...
Maïa Dunphy: 'I was terrified of becoming a single parent'
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Maïa Dunphy had never thought it was the right time to have a baby until, she jokes, her ex-husband told her at nearly 40 "it was time to 'do somethi...
Tony Cantwell: 'Since my ADHD diagnosis I’m a more patient dad’
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Having a son and a daughter has given comedian, Tony Cantwell, the opportunity to explore some of life’s big questions. Things like, is gender just ...
Brendan O'Connor: 'I keep annoying my kids with teachable moments'
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brendan O’Connor is used to being the one who asks the questions on his radio show. But in the very first episode of Conversations with Parents, the...
Conversations with Parents: Guest preview
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Conversations with Parents is coming next week and Jen Hogan has some information about her first few guests. Conversations with Parents is a new podc...
Coming soon: Jen Hogan's Conversations with Parents
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Conversations with Parents is a new podcast from The Irish Times. Host Jen Hogan talks to interesting people about the biggest challenge of their live...