Brendan O'Connor

Brendan O'Connor

Brendan O'Connor has all you need for the weekend with time to pause and reflect on the week just gone. Featuring a selection of human interest, consumer and lifestyle stories, as well as keeping you up to date on the news stories that matter. Listen live Saturday and Sunday at 11am - 1pm on RTÉ Radio 1.

Episodes

The Watchlist

August 16, 2026 • 10 mins
Joining Brendan to pick the best shows and films available this week are host of the Extra Vision Podcast, Andy McCarroll and entertainment journalist and host of The Bellissimo Files, Sarina Bellisimo. Their choices include ‘Holly Willoughby: Together’, season two of ‘Ludwig’ and documentary ‘The Healy Raes: Blood Sweat and Tears’.
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“I’m not worried about Millennials; I’m worried a fear of cringe is ruling Gen Z lives!”

August 16, 2026 • 7 mins
Podcaster and Presenter, Fionnuala Jones, joins Brendan to discuss the growing obsession with cringe. We are now at the point in our culture where anything millennials do is full on cringe according to Gen Z – but do they even care?
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"My big ambition? That my wife is happy" - writer, Richard Ford

August 16, 2026 • 30 mins
Novelist Richard Ford, joins Brendan to discuss the current state of Donald Trump’s America, rediscovering his Irish heritage and the dynamics of his life-long marriage. He also explores his changing relationship to age, ambition and his friend, John Banville.
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Newspaper Panel

August 16, 2026 • 50 mins
Joining Brendan to discuss the top stories in Sunday’s newspapers are: farmer & presenter of Ear to the Ground, Darragh McCullough; Columnist with the Irish Daily Mail and Sunday Independent, Brenda Power; Law Lecturer at NUI Galway, Larry Donnelly; Head of Social Justice and Policy at SVP, Louise Bayliss; and RTE Sports Commentator, Greg Allen.
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Homemade Ice Cream for Dummies with Kevin Dundon

August 15, 2026 • 6 mins
Chef Kevin Dundon joins Brendan to discuss the delights of home-made ice cream. He talks through how to make simple ice-cream at home and tweak it with a range of own favourite flavours, from brown bread to orange to butterscotch.
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A Phsyio’s Guide to Improving your Balance

August 15, 2026 • 5 mins
Chartered Physiotherapist, founder of Posture Fitting and former Ireland Rugby International, Siobhan O’Donovan joins Brendan to offer tips on how to improve and maintain your balance. She suggests exercises and activities that will help your brain preserve its sense of balance.
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“He told me ‘word is you’re a flash in the pan’ - that drove me to prove myself” - Phil Coulter

August 15, 2026 • 31 mins
The multi-award winning songwriter behind classics like ‘Ireland’s Call’ and ‘The Town I Loved So Well’, Phil Coulter tells Brendan about his extraordinary life and career. Phil picks out songs – by others – that inspired him along his journey – including tracks by Sinead O’Connor and Ed Sheeran.
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“Odyssey Round the A&E”, a new poem by Rita Ann Higgins

August 15, 2026 • 3 mins
Acclaimed poet Rita Ann Higgins reads a new poem “Odyssey Round the A&E” inspired by her husband Christy’s recent visit to the Emergency Department.
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From pink cocaine to ultra strong MDMA - a warning on this year’s casual drug trends

August 15, 2026 • 8 mins
The HSE’s National Clinical Lead on Addiction Services, Prof. Eamon Keenan joins Brendan to discuss drug use at festivals emphasising that the best way to stay safe is not to consume drugs. He outlines what HSE services are on site at festivals, what spiked drugs are circulating in Ireland, and what harm reduction strategies users should adopt.
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"With potatoes cooking in the ground - has this summer been a wake-up call on climate change?"

August 15, 2026 • 15 mins
After a summer of unprecedented heatwaves and terrifying wildfires close to home, have people's views on climate change altered? Will these events change how people behave, and the sorts of policies we demand from our leaders? Brendan was joined by the head of the ESRI’s Behavioural Unit, Pete Lunn, and environmental scientist, Tara Shine.
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Robbie Williams - “I’m taking the weight loss jabs. I didn’t qualify, but I’m a celebrity”

August 15, 2026 • 18 mins
Legendary songwriter and performer, Robbie Williams joins Brendan to discuss imposter syndrome, his experience of weight-loss jabs, the difficulty of facing sobriety and all the demons that drove him there. Robbie also does a stellar Morrissey impression.
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The Watchlist

August 9, 2026 • 13 mins
Arts and Music Journalist, Zara Hedderman and Business Post Film critic, John Maguire join Brendan with their film and television recommendations for the week including The Shards on Disney+, In Time - a documentary about Dónal Lunny and the Anthony Bourdain biopic ‘Tony’ .
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“Real life horrors are on your phone instantly”

August 9, 2026 • 9 mins
After the hospitalisation of blogger Perez Hilton this week, Dave Hanratty of the No Encore podcast talks to Brendan about Hilton’s rise, the darkness of the celebrity internet culture of the 2000s and the disturbing voyeurism of social media.
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“Jeremy Irons can hold his own at a seisiún ” - Martin Hayes

August 9, 2026 • 25 mins
One of Ireland’s finest musicians, fiddle player, Martin Hayes talks to Brendan about the music that shaped his life, the melancholy of the songs he grew up with in Clare, discovering The Beatles, the magic of Tommie Potts and reinventing traditional music with The Gloaming.
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The Newspaper Panel

August 9, 2026 • 47 mins
Joining Brendan to discuss the top stories in Sunday’s newspapers are: Former Government Press Secretary, Chris Donoghue, Lorna Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder of Fitzwilliam Fenton Public Affairs Company, Dan O’Brien, Columnist and Chief Economist with IIEA, Louise Burne, Political Correspondent with the Irish Examiner.
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The ultimate cheeseburger

August 8, 2026 • 10 mins
Food Historian and columnist with the Financial Times, Tim Hayward chats to Brendan about the simple joy of the cheeseburger, the certain alchemy of cheap cheese combined with meat from the smash burger to its gourmet reinvention.
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“People used tea bags and gravy browning to tan their legs!”

August 8, 2026 • 9 mins
From Coco Chanel introducing tanning as a style statement to the war effort of mimicking nylons with teabags, fake tan has always been in vogue. Beauty and fashion historian Laura Fitzachary joins Brendan to give a potted history of fake tan and why Irish people are its biggest fans.
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“Marriage needs conflict” - Prof. Katriona O’Sullivan

August 8, 2026 • 27 mins
Prof. Katriona O’Sullivan joins Brendan to discuss the nuances of marriage, reflecting on the knotty dynamics of a committed relationship, the work of connection with a partner and how our parents' marriage maps our emotional lives.
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“I think I'll miss being given out to by Brenda Fricker the most!”

August 8, 2026 • 23 mins
Friends of the late Brenda Fricker, Liz Duffy, costume designer Joan Bergin and filmmaker Tadgh O’Sullivan share their memories of the actress. They talk to Brendan about her work, the woman they knew offscreen and her strength in the face of illness.
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“I didn’t think Ferris Bueller would last 40 years” - Matthew Broderick

August 8, 2026 • 27 mins
Star of the stage and screen Matthew Broderick talks to Brendan about finding fame in the cultural phenomenon Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, his childhood summers in Ireland, being a stage Dad to his son and his Abbey Theatre debut in Ulster American.
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