EVER WONDERED WHAT Ireland AM’s Tommy Bowe loves about going live at 7am? Grilling politicians on the sofa.

Speaking to The Journal during a roundtable interview ahead of the new season of the show, Bowe admitted: “I get such a kick out of them.”

From the Taoiseach on Donald Trump to former finance minister Paschal Donohoe confronted for breaking his own spending rules, there is no shortage of debate.

In discussing the news that comes in each morning, Bowe said that “we’d be shocked with what some people are going through”.

“I feel our job is to try and get those messages across to the politicians, to the people who can have real, genuine impact out there,” he said.

Asked if politicians are ever caught off guard by a tougher line of questioning than they might expect from a morning television show, Bowe said that “politicians expect to be challenged”, even on a more lighthearted show like Ireland AM.

“It’s not like they’re going onto other shows and are not challenged,” he said.

“They may feel they will get an easier ride, but if we listen to what someone’s going through, it’s only right that we’re able to be challenging to the politicians as well”.

He admitted that “We don’t always get it right,” when it comes to tackling interviews on the show. 

Co-host Muireann O’Connell said that the role of the show was to represent people at home and that when interviewing politicians she “doesn’t want to talk about policy all the time”.

“Sometimes the simpler question that you ask them is the killer question because they have to answer it,” she said.

O’Connell said she values being in the position to raise real-life stories with politicians.

“People are coming on and wondering, ‘why am I dying of a disease called Friedrich’s ataxia and my government doesn’t want to save me’,” she said. 

Friedreich’s ataxia is a rare, neurological condition affecting around 200 people in Ireland.

In June, Emily Felix and Aoife Quinn, who suffer with Friedrich’s ataxia, came on the show to campaign for access to Skyclarys, a treatment that slows the progression of the disease, but is not yet available in Ireland.

Even with the wide variety of guests and topics covered on the show (from Love Islanders to heads of state), the hosts admitted that some moments still shock them.

Just today, Tim Pope, acclaimed video director for Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, shared his difficult experiences working with convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.

Pope was on the couch to promote his new book, I Shoot Rock Stars: The Wild Adventures of a Music Video Director.

“You’re sitting there not expecting someone who’s so unbelievably media-trained on Ireland AM at 20 past nine in the morning to basically say, I’m going to send a copy of my book to him in Rikers Island prison and he deserves everything that he has coming to him,” O’Connell said.

For Bowe, another recent standout moment was the double gold-winning European champion Ellen Walshe appearing on the show.

“She only landed back in Dublin yesterday and, before even getting home, going to see family and friends, she was coming in to see us to show off her medals”.

“That’s Ireland AM’s real effect too, they trust us,”, Bowe said.