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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Entertainment
David Kent

RTE Tommy Tiernan Show viewers praise Brent Pope for honesty about anxiety battles

Tommy Tiernan has become one of the best interviewers in Ireland over the last few years, with his primetime Saturday night show entertaining people on a regular basis.

Even though the show has seen a big drop in viewership in this season so far, it is still trending across Ireland.

And Saturday evening's effort was no different, with Tommy joined again by a number of interesting guests.

Brent Pope

The former RTE rugby pundit joined Tommy to open the show.

After a brief discussion about Tommy's links to New Zealand and Pope's 98% Irish heritage, we learned some truths about the legendary Kiwi pundit

Brent Pope speaking to Tommy Tiernan (RTE)

Pope's first impression of Ireland in the last 80's were 'drab and grey', with his father having had visions of Ireland being like The Commitments!

But Brent spent his first night over here sleeping under a jacket in the foyer of St Mary's rugby club.

He opened up on his issues with anxiety issues and homesickness, much to the applause of viewers.

One user tweeted: "Fantastic down to earth interview with a humble, modest man. Well done"

A second added: "It's OK to be vulnerable" is an important take away message from Tommy's interview with Brent Pope."

Ann and Róísín Ingle

Authors Ann and her daughter Róisín were next up.

Ann was brutally honest about her husband's battle with schizophrenia and his suicide in 1980.

But she was full of quips too - asking at one point "well, you can say you've had a lovely dinner, why can't you say you've had a lovely man?!"

Róisín spoke about some issues she had surrounding her career as a writer with the Irish Times, particularly around the abortion referendum, as she had had an abortion herself in the past.

We also learned that Ann had seen Tommy pretty much in the nip!

"Give Ann Ingle a slot on RTÉ - gas woman" laughed one user.

'We need more love in our hearts for everyone' Never a truer word spoken! Roísín and her mam are amazing!" added a second.

Neil Hannon

The Divine Comedy songwriter closed out the show on Saturday, telling Tommy about his current project - writing the songs for the new Willy Wonka film.

Wonka has a star-studded cast, including Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman and Matt Lucas.

And Neil will be writing the songs for it - though Tommy was very curious as to how something like that came about!

Touring life was tough, Neil admitted, with him often having to 'scavenge' for food, but he noted that old age suited him and he's happy being a "comfortable old crooner".

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