Lunchtime Live

Kiera Dignam spoke to Andrea about the loss of her father Christy Dignam, dealing with grief and the upcoming release of her new album, 'Nepo Baby'.

Andrea spoke to Fatin Al Tamimi, a Palestinian living in Ireland, about watching the attacks from Ireland and trying to contact her sister who is currently in Gaza.

Big Brother returns this weekend after a five-year hiatus. The reboot will see a new cast of carefully selected housemates from all walks of life living together for 6 weeks. Apparently, eviction nights will be different, though we haven’t been told how.  The reboot will have a special emphasis on the mental health of contestants.

But what is it like to be on Big Brother and what made it so special?

Joining Andrea on the show were former contestants Ray Shah housemate from Big Brother 4 (2003),  and Noirin Kelly housemate from Big Brother 10 (2009).

Some school children have to wait until secondary school for their first dental check due to backlogs for public routine dental services. Many parents are thus being forced to go private for their children's dental care needs, causing significant financial pressure.

To discuss the crisis and its implications, Andrea was joined by parents Sarah and Shona and owner of Redmond Dental Care in Sutton, Dublin Keith Redmond.

The entire Irish Radio industry is getting suited and booted tonight for the IMRO awards. With it being a Black Tie event, Andrea was joined by Stylist Mandy Maher and Louis Copeland, owner of Louis Copeland & Sons to discuss the requirements for a black tie event and whether the dress code is as popular as it once was.

With the rise of social media, many parents are sharing images and videos of their children leading to the phenomenon known as “sharington”. But in the French Parliament, a proposed bill that would make parents responsible for the privacy rights of their children who cannot consent to their images being shared is being debated. The bill also outlines how parents who look to financial benefit from sharington could face prosecution.

To dicuss whether parents should face tougher restrictions when posting images of their children online, Andrea was joined by Today FM Presenter Alison Curtis, Author and writer Stefanie Preissner and listeners of the show.

Members of the public who witness shoplifters stealing from supermarkets should arrest them, even if they have to use force. 

That is according to Chris Philp, the UK Minister for Policing who claims that the police ‘can’t be everywhere’.  

He urged people in the UK to make citizen’s arrests to snare thieves and called on retailers to use security guards to step in where it is safe to do so.   

Andrea was joined by Shane Gleeson, Finbarr Filan, Law lecturer in University of Galway and Columnist with TheJournal.ie Larry Donnelly to discuss...

A tweet from News Editor of the Irish Examiner Deirdre O’Shaughnessy has sparked off great conversation with the team here. 

She tweeted: “My husband has brought our two kids to a removal this evening and our Ukrainian friends are aghast” 

Is it just a very Irish thing, to bring children to a wake? Or is it a good thing? It’s one of the things us Irish pride ourselves on, doing death well. 

Andrea was joined by listeners to discuss...

One listener, Jerry, emailed Lunchtime Live about something he wanted to raise following an item on the show.

Jerry writes: “However, the main point of this e-mail is to emphasize the hard truth that men don't want to date women over 30. Men very picky on age preference because men of nearly all ages prefer women in their early 20's (and scientific evidence has recently confirmed this). 

Women are valued for their beauty which usually goes rapidly downhill after Age 25. So a man looking for children will look to date a woman 5+ years younger than 30. A lot of men refuse to date a woman over Age 30 because women approaching Age 30 are looked on as "damaged goods". I believe there is a phrase "hitting the wall at 30" to describe this. A woman aged 30 has a lower fertility because by the time she turns 30, she has lost 90% of her egg reserve and her fertility is already in decline. 

On the other hand, men don't really have a biological clock so they have plenty of time on their side to find younger, more attractive women…

Jerry goes on to touch on other ideas, and Andrea discussed the email with listeners…

The mother of murder victim Rachel Callaly says she fears for the first time in her life that killer Joe O’Reilly could soon be released. Rachel's 19th anniversary took place yesterday, October 4. She said that the prospect of her daughter’s killer being released seems more possible now than ever before.

Rose Callaly joined Andrea on Lunchtime Live to discuss...