Dave Moore

The new new season of First Dates Ireland is going to look very different.

The makers of the TV show have announced a new set of strict rules that will need to be followed ahead of the filming of the new season of the RTÉ show.

The rules states that contestants are now allowed to kiss eachother, no matter how well the dates does. Furthermore, they will not be allowed touch eachother and stay two meters apart. The rules are to prevent any outbreak of Covid-19 among cast members during the filming of the show.

One of the producers involved told Today FM that the team are looking at how other countries are making the format work, and that they are evening looking at perspex screens for the "reveal" scene at the end of each date.

Hillary O'Donovan from Coco Content, the makers of the TV show - joined Dermot & Dave this morning to chat about the new seaosn.

Hit play on the podcast in full to hear just how it's all going to work.

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Giving birth is stressful enough as it is, but what if you didn't make it to the hospital on time?

That's what happened to Breda Devitt and Owen Houlihan who welcomed baby Saoirse in the back of their Toyota Avensis earlier in the week. They were just minutes from the hospital when baby Saoirse decided she couldn't wait any longer and entered the world.

Speaking to Dermot and Dave, proud Dad Owen gave an account of the moment he realised that himself and Breda were going to have to go it alone.

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It's a big day.

Everyone's favourite chawwwklit seller from Limerick has her very own quiz.

Noni was beside herself with excitement for this... now it may need a bit of work but don't tell her that!

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It's the biggest buzz word in the world, but does fake news actually matter at all? Does it change our behaviour? Do we even believe it? A world first study has been conducted by psychologists from UCD and UCC and the results are not what you might think.

Speaking to Dermot and Dave, Ciara Greene from the UCD School of Psychology explained the fascinating results they found from the prevalence of people believing fake news to the effect that warnings from Governments and tech companies actually have.

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It started as a heated debate in our own Dermot Whelan's house and now it seems that the rest of the country have very strong opinions on just who deserves the title of 'Aunt' or 'Uncle'.

While we all know that the sibling of your mother or father gets the title, does their husband or wife automatically qualify?

Listeners to Dermot and Dave were massively divided on whether blood really is as thick as wedding bands.

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One in two of us will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime and the impact that it has on both the person facing the diagnosis and their loved one is immense both psychically and mentally.

Thankfully, there are so many amazing charities in Ireland that can be a guiding light to those in the most troubling of times.

One such charity is 'Look Good Feel Better' which hopes to improve the self-esteem of those undergoing cancer treatment through workshops on everything from skin care to make up.

Speaking to Dermot and Dave, Annabel O'Keefe from Look Good Feel Better explained how it's not about vanity, it's about self-care.

Theft is never an easy thing for anyone to endure but when it's a member of your family, and a small and furry one at that, it can be utterly heartbreaking.

Dermot and Dave listeners have been getting in touch with their own stories of attempted robberies, missing dogs and reunions with their furry friends.

Sadly, for one Tipperary family, the search is still ongoing for their beloved Springer Spaniel 'Molly'.

Speaking to Dermot and Dave, Orlaith Eichholz told us how Molly disappeared from their front garden on the 27th of July this year and despite a massive Facebook campaign and a number of leads to people who have handled Molly, she is still nowhere to be found.

The search has now gone international, with suspicions that the 9 year old spaniel is in the UK, likely to be sold for a huge amount of money to an unsuspecting family.

While Orlaith still has hope that they'll be reunited, she had some advice for families who might go through the same thing. She told Dermot and Dave 'if you think your dog has been stolen, call the Gardaí straight away and get their faces out there'.

For more information on the search for Molly, visit the Bring Molly Home Facebook page.

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Since wearing a mask became mandatory in Ireland, there has been a huge debate as to how they should be worn.

One doctor is taking the charge in the trying to educate the population on the right way of using a face covering.

Dr. Maitiu O’Tuathail raised a number of points with Dermot this morning about how people need to be aware of how they use their mask. He thinks that just like we are taught to use condoms in school, we should receive instructions on how to apply a face covering.

Remember to wear your face covering correctly

This maybe the summer of no live music, but that was no problem for one Dermot & Dave listener.

The lads got a message from a listener which said " I'm on a mission for a favour from ye if ye could be so kind to help a girl out!

As with everyone at the moment, myself and my family are all in lockdown all over the county.

With all that has gone on, all the events that we would have had to meet up have been cancelled and postponed including 30th birthdays, weddings, 1st birthdays for nieces and nephews etc and most devastatingly for a lot of us...Electric Picnic and all the other festivals this summer!

Because of this, my cousin Claire and I have decided that we are going to throw our own festival in August when hopefully, we will be in the phase that allows small gatherings, for all the women in our family.

We are calling it CoronaFest 2020 and have tickets made up, wristbands ordered and face masks made and everything! What I'm asking for is a little shoutout video from our "headliners" that we can play for them all on a screen as they walk into CoronaFest 2020 and finally meet up with each other again! 

She spoke to Dermot this morning about the festival which is due to take place this weekend.

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This morning on Dermot & Dave, they spoke about Direct Provision Centres here in Ireland.

Chawa Ndlovu is originally from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. She formerly worked in Health and Safety in the engineering sector in her home country but due to a number of factors felt she had to leave for her own safety.

She arrived in Ireland in November, 2019. Initially she was moved to the Balseskin Reception Centre in Dublin, then to emergency accommodation (a Travel Lodge in Swords), from there to Cahersiveen and the doomed Skellig Star Hotel where she was one of 20 to contract Covid19.

She was moved to isolation in the Vienna Woods Hotel in Cork and after that to emergency accommodation on Bolton Street in Dublin. At the moment her accommodation, where food is provided, is relatively good but her mad journey across Ireland in just nine-months shows the calamity of the Direct Provision system.

Chawa has always run, as much for her head as her body. When locked down in Cahersiveen and then in Cork she always took part in our online Sanctuary Strength classes with the Olympic Rower and Sanctuary Runners’ organiser Claire Lambe.

Hit play to hear Chawa's full chat with Dermot below.

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