February 3, 2025 • 5 mins
The wonderful Shane Gallagher (AKA the Digger Dad) joins Jonesy & Amanda for a chat!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda Gama.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So I came across on my socials just a dad
sitting in his digger, singing beautiful songs and talking about
mental health. He's an incredible guy. I can't wait to
have him on the show right now. He is the
digger Dad aka Shane Gallagher all the other way around,
Shane Digga Dad.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hello, we're good. First question, which sort of digger did
you do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You drive?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Obsessed?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Manda didn't, wouldn't tell me what it was.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You had no idea. A pretty big excavator, like bigger
than a D nine some names the equivalent. But yeahs
they can go bigger, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Happy with that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Jensen for me, I have no fun.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So, Shane, you came into my feed somehow. You're sitting
there playing guitar and the whole world has opened up
for you since then, the people that you've touched since then.
How did it all come about? What made you think
you wanted to upload yourself singing in your digger?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I have no idea. I was noisy. It was just
a spur of the moment thing. And I first started
out just telling stories of growing up and you know,
chasing girls and all that kind of stuff. And then
just one morning I recorded a video of me singing
Tracy Chapman's Fast Car in the Youth, and a video
I put no effort into, no talking too. I just
(01:20):
thought I'd better put out some kind of a video
today in order for me to kind of keep showing up.
And I showed up everywhere with that one. That one
went crazy. So then I started to kind of dial
us into more important stuff like social or mental health
awareness and all the other stuff I'm doing with autism
and all that kind of stuff. And it's it's great.
(01:40):
It's really good for my mental health too, and what
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So yeah, we plied a snippet earlier of that incredible
sound voice message you had from a young man in
Ireland who said you'd turned his life around quite extraordinary,
and you talked very openly about your son and his
autism and written a book to help him with that.
Tell us about all of that.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So Nil was diagnosed when he was just two, and
we kind of got a sense fairly early on that
he was a little bit different. You know, he could
count to one hundred before he could say yes and no.
You know, he was lining things up in order, everything
had to be a particular way, and if it wasn't,
forget about it. You know, if you couldn't be that way,
(02:25):
watch out, you know. So we kind of went and
got assessed and realized that he was autistic, and then
I kind of wanted to share my side of it
because I have the platform with people to let them
kind of see this. It's not just them that's going
through this. The dig or that goes through it, and
somebody else that they might watch on goes through, or
someone that might pass behind the shops goes through it
(02:47):
as well, and the spectrum is so wide as well.
Every child is different, obviously, but if people can relate
to somebody online in a kind of a genuine, non
forced way, that kind of brings them a bit of comfort.
I imagine quite and I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Believe it's someone very especially in Ireland, who's listening to
this very interview this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, Mammy, she showed me anyway, she said she was
so hopefully, she said, she was.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
What are your Irish friends think of this new tangent
that your life has taken?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, it was because I went back in June for
a little bit of a holiday. I did a few
gigs as well, and it was such an eye opener
when I went back this time, just complete change. Everyone
kind of sees you and recognizes you, and everyone's shaking
your hands. Some people will like it and some people won't.
It's just life, you know. People that you grew up
with might look at you a little bit differently now
(03:40):
that you're in a different kind of a spotlight. Of course,
you know that comes with it. But you're the people
that mean the most and that care the most about
you will kind of steering in the right direction. I
kind of hope for the best for you, you know,
and that sort of sense. We are you doing a.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Great job for the digger questions, Brenda.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
No, I'm pretty much. I'm pretty much furnished on. I'm
satisfied with all the the questions. That you ever get
to drive one of those whole packs, you know, the
big mining trucks.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
No, oh, No, I actually did, Yeah, I did. I
guys sent out to somewhere somewhere locally around here just
to kind of give someone a bit of a plug
with their training and stuff, and they give me a
free course on one of those things. So it was
pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, because Jonesy's always said that when he finishes here,
and he'll be very soon. I've seen emails this morning
that he wants to do. You want to drive a digger,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I don't want to. I love escavators.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I just.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I want to set up a park. This is what
I want to do. I want to set up a
park with guys like me. Just go along and there's
a bunch of diggers there. You go like anything from
a Bobcat up to you know, back hose, then to
like a D nine and you just have a go.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Just moving, moving dirt around.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I think that's a that'd be a thing.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah. They've got one up here for the for the kids.
It's called dig It. It's on Mountamboury.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It's for children children.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Recently, I think we're going to expand it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Sure, I'm sure we can. We can guess him in.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Get you on the ground floor, mate, Shane. It's great
to talk to you. Different Dave by The Digga Dad
is out now from the diiggadad dot Etsy dot com.
Hi to your mammy and thanks for joining us, mate, worries.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Love you to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Thank you, Shane,
And Amanda Gama.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So I came across on my socials just a dad
sitting in his digger, singing beautiful songs and talking about
mental health. He's an incredible guy. I can't wait to
have him on the show right now. He is the
digger Dad aka Shane Gallagher all the other way around,
Shane Digga Dad.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hello, we're good. First question, which sort of digger did
you do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You drive?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Obsessed?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Manda didn't, wouldn't tell me what it was.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You had no idea. A pretty big excavator, like bigger
than a D nine some names the equivalent. But yeahs
they can go bigger, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Happy with that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Jensen for me, I have no fun.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So, Shane, you came into my feed somehow. You're sitting
there playing guitar and the whole world has opened up
for you since then, the people that you've touched since then.
How did it all come about? What made you think
you wanted to upload yourself singing in your digger?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I have no idea. I was noisy. It was just
a spur of the moment thing. And I first started
out just telling stories of growing up and you know,
chasing girls and all that kind of stuff. And then
just one morning I recorded a video of me singing
Tracy Chapman's Fast Car in the Youth, and a video
I put no effort into, no talking too. I just
(01:20):
thought I'd better put out some kind of a video
today in order for me to kind of keep showing up.
And I showed up everywhere with that one. That one
went crazy. So then I started to kind of dial
us into more important stuff like social or mental health
awareness and all the other stuff I'm doing with autism
and all that kind of stuff. And it's it's great.
(01:40):
It's really good for my mental health too, and what
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So yeah, we plied a snippet earlier of that incredible
sound voice message you had from a young man in
Ireland who said you'd turned his life around quite extraordinary,
and you talked very openly about your son and his
autism and written a book to help him with that.
Tell us about all of that.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So Nil was diagnosed when he was just two, and
we kind of got a sense fairly early on that
he was a little bit different. You know, he could
count to one hundred before he could say yes and no.
You know, he was lining things up in order, everything
had to be a particular way, and if it wasn't,
forget about it. You know, if you couldn't be that way,
(02:25):
watch out, you know. So we kind of went and
got assessed and realized that he was autistic, and then
I kind of wanted to share my side of it
because I have the platform with people to let them
kind of see this. It's not just them that's going
through this. The dig or that goes through it, and
somebody else that they might watch on goes through, or
someone that might pass behind the shops goes through it
(02:47):
as well, and the spectrum is so wide as well.
Every child is different, obviously, but if people can relate
to somebody online in a kind of a genuine, non
forced way, that kind of brings them a bit of comfort.
I imagine quite and I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Believe it's someone very especially in Ireland, who's listening to
this very interview this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, Mammy, she showed me anyway, she said she was
so hopefully, she said, she was.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
What are your Irish friends think of this new tangent
that your life has taken?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, it was because I went back in June for
a little bit of a holiday. I did a few
gigs as well, and it was such an eye opener
when I went back this time, just complete change. Everyone
kind of sees you and recognizes you, and everyone's shaking
your hands. Some people will like it and some people won't.
It's just life, you know. People that you grew up
with might look at you a little bit differently now
(03:40):
that you're in a different kind of a spotlight. Of course,
you know that comes with it. But you're the people
that mean the most and that care the most about
you will kind of steering in the right direction. I
kind of hope for the best for you, you know,
and that sort of sense. We are you doing a.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Great job for the digger questions, Brenda.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
No, I'm pretty much. I'm pretty much furnished on. I'm
satisfied with all the the questions. That you ever get
to drive one of those whole packs, you know, the
big mining trucks.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
No, oh, No, I actually did, Yeah, I did. I
guys sent out to somewhere somewhere locally around here just
to kind of give someone a bit of a plug
with their training and stuff, and they give me a
free course on one of those things. So it was
pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, because Jonesy's always said that when he finishes here,
and he'll be very soon. I've seen emails this morning
that he wants to do. You want to drive a digger,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I don't want to. I love escavators.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I just.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I want to set up a park. This is what
I want to do. I want to set up a
park with guys like me. Just go along and there's
a bunch of diggers there. You go like anything from
a Bobcat up to you know, back hose, then to
like a D nine and you just have a go.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Just moving, moving dirt around.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I think that's a that'd be a thing.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah. They've got one up here for the for the kids.
It's called dig It. It's on Mountamboury.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It's for children children.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Recently, I think we're going to expand it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Sure, I'm sure we can. We can guess him in.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Get you on the ground floor, mate, Shane. It's great
to talk to you. Different Dave by The Digga Dad
is out now from the diiggadad dot Etsy dot com.
Hi to your mammy and thanks for joining us, mate, worries.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Love you to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Thank you, Shane,
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