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(This article is produced by our Gaeltacht team. You can read an Irish version of this piece here)
LIFE IS INCREDIBLY challenging today as people struggle with parenting, bullying and anxiety – but you are not alone in dealing with these challenges.
That is the message at the heart of a new series that begins this week as much-loved broadcaster Síle Seoighe asks friends and experts how they are coping with these challenges and whether there are ways to overcome or manage them.
The presenter spoke to The Journal about the new series, Síle Seoighe: An Saol Mar Atá, ahead of the series’ first episode airing this Wednesday.
Síle is, of course, well known for her work as a presenter on Hollywood Anocht and, later, as a continuity presenter on TG4. She has also worked for many other channels, reporting for programmes such as Nationwide and co-presenting ‘Seoige’ with her sister Gráinne on RTÉ.
She started a podcast in 2023, Ready to be Real, in which she talks to famous people about life.
She made a documentary that aired on TG4 a few years ago about miscarriage, which had a huge public response.
“That was kind of heavy and I was talking about my own experience and a lot of people were talking about it – I think it’s one of the most watched shows on the TG4 player.
“I’m still getting messages from the public about it.”
In the new series, she has a series of conversations with guests and friends to find out what challenges they face in their lives and what she can learn from them.
“We’re trying to find out why people are under pressure,” she said. “And telling them that it’s natural and that life is structured the way it is is the hardest part.
It’s hard to manage, to be honest.
However, she said that she and the producers of the series did not want people to take the message from it that there was nothing that could be done.
She referred to the way social media was interfering with family life and also said that the cost of raising a family was far too high.
“The cost of raising a family and the cost of paying a mortgage and the general cost of everything – things have to change, it’s bad.”
She visited Oslo, the capital of Norway, where she spoke to Niamh Ní Bhroin, a professor who works at the university in the city and is raising a family there.
According to her, the support received in Norway is much better than in Ireland and parents, both mothers and fathers, have the opportunity to spend more time at home with their children while receiving support from the State.
“People are saying again and again that they are under a strange pressure, they want to be at home perhaps with the children, they want to be able to work but they can’t do everything,” she said.
We also need to have a kind of better understanding when we are raising young children in particular.”
In the second episode in the series, Síle looks at the issue of anxiety and recalls her own experience.
“I personally don’t get too much anxiety, but there are times when I look back on my life that I have been affected by anxiety.
“I have a much better understanding now of how I was feeling and of other people who were suffering so that we can support each other and have that understanding.”
Regarding bullying, Síle gives insight into how something nasty someone said about another person can have a long-term impact on that person and the person who said the statement can be left completely devastated.
“The programme about bullying was one of the saddest programmes we have had because of the impact that can be seen.
“It’s terrible and we have to do that especially when we’re dealing with social media and young people and how it’s affecting them.”
She said the Government needed to do much more and feels talk from Simon Harris about a potential ban under-16s on social is something like what was needed.
“We’re looking at Australia now, they’ve done it.”
She also recalled her own children, her son aged eight and her four year old daughter.
“They don’t mind watching TV but they don’t have any screens, they don’t have any iPads, they don’t have any computer games because they’re really young.
“But, of course, as my son grows up, he’ll be asking us those questions, saying, “I want an iPad or my friend has a phone. Why doesn’t it belong to me?”
“When that day comes when we’re there to give him a phone, we’ll have to be fully informed about the technology and its impacts.”
A number of guests will be talking to Síle about their experiences on the various programmes, including sports broadcaster and senator, Evanne Ní Chuilinn, among others.
According to Síle, there is a connection between the different topics discussed in the three programmes; raising a family, anxiety and bullying but she is more optimistic now that the programmes, which took around eight months to record, are finished and ready to be broadcast.
She doesn’t know what the response will be to her latest series, a series produced by Rachel Moriarty, but she is not ruling out more programmes like ‘An Saol Mar Atá’.
The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
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