‘I didn’t have it together’ – Doireann Garrihy opens up to Ryan Tubridy on life in her 20s

Garrihy, who presented the breakfast show on 2FM for the last time on May 31, was speaking to Tubridy on his podcast The Bookshelf.

She spoke with Tubridy about relationships, feeling pressure to get eight hours of sleep a night and learning empathy from Jacqueline Wilson novels.

“I’m 31 now and when I think back on my late 20s, I didn’t have it together personally in many ways,” she said.

She said she was “trying to act like I had it all together and had every box ticked, being in relationships – and being in relationships I don’t think or know were long-term but doing it for the sake of it because that is what you do and you give it a go, and it doesn’t matter that you know that it’s not right to stay there.”

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Tubridy’s new podcast revolves around guests talking about three book choices; a favourite childhood book, a book that changed their life and a book that made them cry.

For the book that changed her life, Garrihy opted for Your One Wild and Precious Life by psychologist Dr Maureen Gaffney, who she first remembers hearing on The Marian Finucane Show as a teenager.

Garrihy said she bought the book at a point when she felt her work life was being prioritised over her personal life.

“My sisters were both married and having babies and you go, ‘I should be trying to get on that track as well’ but doing it for reasons that weren’t right. And this [book] made me feel very normal,” she said.

“She goes through all the chapters of life, literally chronologically how life goes and the things you want from life, expect from life, don’t get from life at different ages and how it makes you feel.”

With the Leaving Cert starting on June 5, Garrihy told a story about going to see King Lear – with Ian McKellann in the titular role – in London as a fifth year student and spoke about the importance of teachers in fostering an appreciation for the arts among students.

“Peak Celtic Tiger times, they were like ‘why don’t we fly the fifth year to London to see King Lear?’ So we went to see King Lear in London, Dustin Hoffman was in the audience,” said Garrihy.

The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy is released every Tuesday on all major audio platforms and YouTube.