IMAGE The Motherload

This week on IMAGE The Motherload, Dominique is joined by Naomi Clarke, better known as The Style Fairy, stylist, content creator, founder of fashion brand NOMI and mum of three daughters.

Behind Naomi's successful career is a deeply personal story of motherhood, resilience and navigating some extraordinarily difficult experiences.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just 17, Naomi went on to experience three high-risk pregnancies and premature births, including a traumatic birth and NICU stay with her second daughter. Her third pregnancy came during the uncertainty of Covid.

Alongside raising her family, Naomi built a successful styling career before launching her own fashion label, NOMI, in 2023. But as the business grew, so did the demands on her time, family and health, ultimately leading her to make the difficult decision to step back.

In this conversation, Naomi and Dominique discuss birth trauma, managing a lifelong health condition, marriage, the importance of family support, raising three daughters and the pressure women feel to do it all. They also explore finding your identity again through clothes, and why sometimes the most ambitious thing you can do is decide what really matters to you.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare. #sponsored

This week on IMAGE The Motherload, Dominique is joined by Dr Laura Lenihan, GP, business owner, content creator and mum of three, for an honest conversation about burnout, ADHD and the extraordinary mental load of modern motherhood.

Earlier this year, at the age of 44, Laura was diagnosed with ADHD. It was a revelation that made her reconsider decades of overwhelm, the pressures she'd placed on herself and the coping strategies she'd relied on for years.

Laura also shares what happened when, exhausted by the relentless demands of family life, she decided to stop doing the housework altogether, and the conversations that followed about responsibility, resentment and the invisible labour of motherhood.

Together, Laura and Dominique explore the relationship between ADHD and perimenopause, the pressures on women to have it all, body image, cosmetic surgery and what it means to redefine success and motherhood in your 40s.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

Karen Clince became a mum at just 21. Around the same time, she began building what would eventually become one of Ireland's largest childcare businesses.

More than two decades later, Tigers Childcare cares for thousands of children and employs hundreds of people, and this year Karen sold a majority stake in the business in a deal reported to be worth up to €75 million.

Behind that extraordinary business story is a deeply personal one.

In this episode of IMAGE The Motherload, Karen joins Dominique to talk about growing up with a father experiencing addiction and serious mental health difficulties, the mother who became the constant in her life, becoming a young mum herself, and raising two children while building a business from the ground up.

They talk about being underestimated, navigating misogyny in business, the reality of Ireland's childcare crisis and Karen's belief in the extraordinary difference one good adult can make in a child's life.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare

How do we raise children who can handle hard things, without leaving them to handle those things alone?

In this special live episode of IMAGE The Motherload, recorded at Avoca Rathcoole, Dominique is joined by psychotherapist and bestselling author Dr Joanna Fortune, play therapist Lisa Kennedy, and mums Rosanna Davison and Sinéad O'Moore for an honest and practical conversation about raising resilient children.

Together, they explore big emotions, worry and anxiety, bedtime, boundaries and consequences, knowing when to step in and when to step back, and what to do when all the good parenting advice disappears and we lose our temper.

And perhaps most importantly, they ask how much of raising resilient children actually begins with us: how we regulate ourselves, repair when we get things wrong and show our children that difficult feelings can be felt and hard moments can be survived.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

Hazel Chu has spent much of her public life breaking barriers. As the first Irish-born person of Chinese heritage to serve as Lord Mayor of Dublin and now deputy leader of the Green Party, she has faced racism, abuse and scrutiny while fighting for a more equal Ireland.

But in this deeply personal episode of IMAGE The Motherload, Hazel joins Dominique to talk about the experiences that have shaped her away from politics.

She speaks with extraordinary openness about her recent breast cancer diagnosis, the moment her then seven-year-old daughter Alex asked, “Mama, are you going to die?”, and the loneliness that can come with being seriously ill.

Hazel also looks back at a difficult pregnancy and her experience of postnatal depression, including the period when she struggled to feel love for herself or her new baby.

And in one of the most emotional moments of the conversation, Hazel talks about racism, how becoming a mother changed her relationship with it, and the pain of watching her daughter experience racism herself.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

In this week’s episode of IMAGE The Motherload, Mary Kennedy joins Dominique for a beautiful conversation about motherhood, ambition, loss, marriage and separation, ageing, grandmotherhood and the many times in life we get to begin again.

Mary Kennedy has spent decades on Irish television, but behind her remarkable broadcasting career is a life shaped by a willingness to keep beginning again.

In this warm and deeply personal conversation she talks about raising four children while building her career, navigating separation at a time when it carried a very different social weight in Ireland, being rejected twice before finally getting the opportunity to present Eurovision, and what all those experiences taught her about failure, persistence and putting yourself forward.

We hope you enjoy.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

Louise Cooney has shared her life online for more than a decade, but in this episode of IMAGE The Motherload, you will hear a side of her you may not have heard before.

Now mum to two-year-old Jude and pregnant with her second child, Louise joins Dominique at a fascinating moment in her life, as she prepares to become a mum of two.

Here, Louise opens up about how she is feeling during her second pregnancy, the bittersweet reality of knowing her chapter as a family of three is coming to an end, and the questions that come with wondering how you will divide your time and heart between two kids. 

She also reflects on when she became a mum the first time around, her changing identity, confidence, work and mum guilt, her relationship with husband Mark, sharing motherhood online and what she hopes to do differently when baby number two arrives.

And, of course, there’s plenty of fashion and beauty too.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

Broadcaster, documentary maker, podcaster and mum of two Síle Seoige joins Dominique for a beautifully open conversation about the experiences that have shaped her.

From pregnancy loss and thyroid cancer to anxiety, motherhood, marriage and a career spent in the public eye, Síle reflects on the highs and lows of her life with extraordinary perspective.

They talk about becoming a mum later in life, raising children in an increasingly anxious world, learning when to push yourself and when to protect yourself, why gratitude has become such an important part of how she moves through the world, and what hundreds of intimate conversations on her own podcast have taught her about being human.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

For Maria Walsh, motherhood didn't begin with a positive pregnancy test. It began with therapy, difficult decisions, IVF and choosing to build a family on her own terms.

In this deeply personal conversation, the Fine Gael MEP joins Dominique to discuss her journey to solo motherhood through IVF and sperm donation, and why she believes Ireland still has a long way to go in supporting modern families.

Maria speaks candidly about fertility treatment, public scrutiny, compassionate healthcare, the legal issues around donor conception, LGBTQ+ parenting and the importance of recognising the value of care.

She also reflects on ambition, equality, building a village around her child, and the kind of Ireland she hopes her daughter will grow up in.

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.

Writer, broadcaster, author, grandmother and now stand-up comedian, Barbara joins Dominique this week for a funny, wise and refreshingly honest conversation about why getting older might just be the greatest gift of all.

Together they discuss becoming a comedian at 60, the surprising freedom that comes after menopause, why women should stop apologising for their anger, and the joy of caring a little less about what other people think.

Barbara also reflects on becoming a mother in 1980s Ireland, raising three daughters, navigating modern motherhood, becoming a grandmother, and why loving your grandchildren doesn't necessarily mean becoming full-time childcare.

This is an episode about reinvention, perspective and remembering that life's best chapters may not have even happened yet.

Tickets and dates for Barbara's upcoming show, Because I'm Worth It, are available here : https://barbarascully.com/shows/

IMAGE The Motherload is powered by Peugeot and sponsored by Liffey Valley, Avoca, Revive Active, Aptamil Advanced and Tigers Childcare.