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Gareth O'Callaghan (born 24 March 1961) is an Irish writer and former radio and television presenter. He was most recently heard on
4fm Ireland's Classic Hits Radio is an Irish independent multi-region radio station based in Dublin, and broadcasting to that city as well as Cork, Limerick, Galway, County Clare, County Wicklow, County Kildare, County Meath. It can also be picked ...
, having presented shows on
RTÉ 2fm (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...
for much of his career until 2005, and then a show on
Galway Bay FM Galway Bay FM is an Irish independent local radio station and operates under a licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. Established in 1989, the station broadcasts from studios in Galway, serving the city and County Galway. Progra ...
. In January 2022 it was announced that he is to return to radio after a 4-year break, presenting a new Saturday morning with Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio. O'Callaghan is a qualified clinical psychotherapist. Gareth married Paula on September 17, 2020 and live together in Cork


Early life

When he was eleven years of age in the early 1970s, O'Callaghan was first abused while staying at a Franciscan Brothers house, St Anthony's, in
Clara, County Offaly Clara () is a town on the River Brosna in County Offaly and is the 10th largest town in the midlands of Ireland. The town had a population of 3,336 as of the 2016 census. Clara's local services include churches, banks, credit union, schools, ...
, along with a group of young people he knew. The brother began by showing him how to bake bread during the day and then bringing him to his bedroom at night. When O'Callaghan's stay at the house ended, the brother arrived at his house on Dublin's Navan Road, bearing gifts for his mother and staying the night, sleeping opposite the boy he had abused. The next day his mother informed him in the brother's presence that he had been invited to Clara for the Easter holidays. O'Callaghan was unable to tell his mother in the months that followed and he set off from Heuston Station with a little brown suitcase. He was picked up at the train station in Clara and driven back to St Anthony's. This time he was the only child in the house. He was given a room near where his abuser was sleeping, one with an adjoining door. On the second night of this, O'Callaghan made a 5 am escape down some stairs when the brother had fallen asleep. Aware of a train from Galway that would arrive at 7 am, he hid among a woman and her children at Clara train station and then made his way back to Heuston Station. He then took a bus home, informing his mother that the brother had been required to go away. She never asked her son about the absent little brown suitcase. O'Callaghan began to experience nightmares, which lasted for many years, and consisted of his abuser returning. After telling a teacher he was ill he left school early, approaching his Inter Cert examinations, and attended confession at
St Mary's Pro-Cathedral St Mary's Church ( ga, Leas-Ardeaglais Naomh Muire), known also as St Mary's Pro-Cathedral or simply the Pro-Cathedral, the Chapel in Marlborough Street or the Pro, is a pro-cathedral and is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop ...
with the intention of explaining what had happened to him. The priest was unsympathetic, accused O'Callaghan of defaming the brother's name and told him to get out. He then told his mother when he returned home and received a more sympathetic response, with her insisting he was not to blame for what had happened. At the age of twenty, O'Callaghan once more met his abuser. The brother recognised him but O'Callaghan turned and ran.


Career


Radio

O'Callaghan started working with small pirates such as Radio Dublin. He then was a presenter on "superpirate" Radio Nova in the early 1980s, followed by
Sunshine Radio Sunshine Radio may refer to: * Sunshine Radio (Ludlow), a radio station covering South Shropshire, North Herefordshire and North Worcestershire * Sunshine Radio (Herefordshire and Monmouthshire), a radio station based in Hereford * Sunshine 1530 ...
(briefly), later Energy 103FM and Q102 (briefly). He spent a few years on UK radio, after his spell with Sunshine Radio in 1983, starting with offshore pirate
Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...
. After Q102, O'Callaghan joined legal Irish radio with Millennium Radio and then in 1989 he moved to the newly relaunched "2fm" – an attempt by RTÉ to take advantage of the recently departed Superpirates. He then presented the ''Gareth O'Callaghan in the Afternoon'' show which was similar in theme, tone and content to the ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' show on BBC Radio 1 of the late 1980s and early 1990s. This show was a huge success gaining O'Callaghan widespread popularity all over Ireland by offering a brand and style of commercial radio that was more reminiscent of Radio Nova in Dublin at the very height of its popularity. O'Callaghan left RTÉ 2fm's afternoon show, having previously presented the breakfast show on the station (replacing
Ian Dempsey Ian Dempsey (born 16 January 1961) is an Irish presenter of television and breakfast radio. He is the long-running presenter of the breakfast show on Today FM, self-titled '' The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show'', which runs from 6-9 am each weekday ...
). After leaving 2fm, O'Callaghan took some time out from radio to pursue a career in psychology before being named presenter of the breakfast show on
Galway Bay FM Galway Bay FM is an Irish independent local radio station and operates under a licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. Established in 1989, the station broadcasts from studios in Galway, serving the city and County Galway. Progra ...
. On 27 February 2009 Gareth launched Ireland's newest commercial independent Quasi-national radio station
4fm Ireland's Classic Hits Radio is an Irish independent multi-region radio station based in Dublin, and broadcasting to that city as well as Cork, Limerick, Galway, County Clare, County Wicklow, County Kildare, County Meath. It can also be picked ...
(now called
Ireland's Classic Hits Radio Ireland's Classic Hits Radio is an Irish Radio in Ireland, independent multi-region radio station based in Dublin, and broadcasting to that city as well as Cork city, Cork, Limerick, Galway, County Clare, County Wicklow, County Kildare, County M ...
) where he was the morning show host before moving to the afternoon slot. Before
Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of ''The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late Late ...
's retirement from '' The Gay Byrne Show'' in 1998, he was helped a bit by O'Callaghan but O'Callaghan left him after getting fed up and went to RTÉ 2fm instead.
Des Cahill Desmond Cahill (born 10 March 1959) is an Irish sports presenter and commentator with national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Cahill presents RTÉ television's GAA programme '' The Sunday Game'' and RTÉ's flagship weekend sports radi ...
had to help Byrne after that. In 2010, O'Callaghan spoke out against
cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...
use following the death of Gerry Ryan, a former colleague and friend. He acknowledged that he had known of Ryan's cocaine use for 16 years and received criticism and intimidation after speaking about this in public. In January 2022 it was announced the Gareth was to return to broadcasting, specifically to Classic Hits Radio, to present a Saturday morning radio programme.


Writing

O'Callaghan has been writing since 1995. To date, he is the author of six best-selling works – five novels and a memoir. He has contributed two stories to th
New Island Open Door
series, entitled ''Joe's Wedding'' and ''Stray Dog''. New Island publishes literary fiction, poetry, drama, biography, politics and social affairs. O'Callaghan wrote ''A Day Called Hope: A Journey Beyond Depression'' about his own personal experience of severe depression. The book detailed how, as soon as left his radio job each day, he would retreat to his bed, sometimes with thoughts of suicide. It became one of the biggest-selling books in Ireland in 2003, and continues to sell in huge numbers. It has been published in 15 countries, and translated into 10 languages. O'Callaghan is also a regular contributor to many of the national newspapers in Ireland, having written regularly for ''The Irish Times'', the ''Sunday Independent'' and the ''Evening Herald''. He is currently writing a sequel to ''A Day Called Hope'', and is also said to be working on a new novel. His seventh book, ''What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark'', was published in March 2021.


Personal life

O'Callaghan's first marriage broke down in 2005. With little money, he took to living by himself in a flat. He met Paula Delaney in March 2015, a fortnight after O'Callaghan's "dear friend" Tony Fenton died (O'Callaghan had listened to the tributes to Fenton and asked for an end to the loneliness he was then experiencing, thus causing him to wonder if Fenton "wherever it was he had gone to after his death" had arranged the encounter between himself and Paula). He married her in Cork Registry Office in September 2020. O'Callaghan lives in Cork with his wife. He has three daughters, Kerri, Katie and Aibhín.


Health

O'Callaghan experienced depression from the 1990s until 2015. In 1999, he lost three stone in less than three months and was prescribed antidepressants, which he was on for two years. In early 2016, he started to suffer from a pounding heart. In late 2017, he fell over a sofa at work (the Classic Hits radio station). In March 2018, O'Callaghan announced to listeners of Neil Prendeville's Cork's Red FM show that he had developed
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
(PD). He said: "I was tripping. I was dropping things in work. When you drop a cup of coffee literally out of your hand and it scalds your foot and people look at you and think 'what's wrong with him?' I fell out of the bath one morning and I didn't understand why I fell out. I have noticed changes in you have to stop and choose words. It is not that your speech changes the way you transport the words it happens in a different way. When I was diagnosed I was told I have had this for a couple of years which in a way was a relief to me. There were times over the last few years where I thought I was going mad. I couldn't figure out what it was." O'Callaghan mentioned that, prior to his diagnosis, he had read a ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' article in which DJ
David Jensen David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...
spoke of his experience of Parkinson's. O'Callaghan retired from radio in August 2018 after being diagnosed with the neurodegenerative illness
multiple system atrophy Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by autonomic dysfunction, tremors, slow movement, muscle rigidity, and postural instability (collectively known as parkinsonism) and ataxia. This is caused by p ...
(MSA), an incurable and even more rare disease (less than 3,500 people were at the time thought to be enduring the condition in the whole of Ireland and the UK). In an online post, he wrote "It is a rare disease, very progressive and sadly incurable. I thought I might have been able to continue working as normal for another few months but, unfortunately, the pace and the painful decline of this awful thing has really taken us by surprise." O'Callaghan spent six weeks in hospital after a car crash in Cork in March 2023.


Advocacy

O'Callaghan is a prominent supporter of suicide and depression-related topics, having had previous personal experience of these throughout his adult life. He has written books dealing with such topics, and was a supporter of the Irish suicide charity Console Suicide charity Ireland before its closure, representing them in
Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland r ...
debates on at least one occasion.


References


External links


Gareth O'Callaghan
at
4fm Ireland's Classic Hits Radio is an Irish independent multi-region radio station based in Dublin, and broadcasting to that city as well as Cork, Limerick, Galway, County Clare, County Wicklow, County Kildare, County Meath. It can also be picked ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocallaghan, Gareth 1961 births Living people Classic Hits (Ireland) presenters Galway Bay FM presenters Irish non-fiction writers Irish novelists RTÉ 2fm presenters RTÉ Radio 1 presenters RTÉ television presenters Irish male novelists Irish memoirists People with Parkinson's disease 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people Male non-fiction writers People educated at St. Declan's College, Dublin Place of birth missing (living people) Writers from County Dublin Broadcasters from County Dublin