Comedian and radio presenter PJ Gallagher has spoken about his struggles with depression and anxiety and recalled the night he finally confronted the problem – with a lot of help from one of his best friends.
The 51-year-old Dubliner, who co-hosts Radio Nova’s breakfast show, has previously been praised for his advocacy for mental health issues and in a new interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s Brendan O’Connor Show, he said, “part of the illness is that it lies to you.”
2024 documentary PJ Gallagher: Changing My Mind saw the comedian exploring mental health issues in Ireland
“I was very unwell, very unwell with depression,” he said. “I had repetitive depressive disorder and I had a particularly bad bout. I could go years without one and most of them were pretty manageable but I had two that were life-threatening and I wasn’t handling the last one I had at all well.”
The comedian said that he hit rock bottom in the early hours one morning and turned to his friend, Irish writer and actress Stefanie Preissner, who has worked on RTÉ shows Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope and The Walsh Sisters.
“I remember having this clear thought one day that I wouldn’t see the end of the day,” Gallagher said. “I had woken up at half four in the morning and there was a message from Stefanie saying – ‘no time is too early, no time is too late. If you need me, call me’
“I called her and ended up at her house and it was a pivotal moment. I decided I can’t stay like this. I was so resistant about going to hospital. I thought as soon as someone knows how I feel, I’ll never recover from it – I’ll lose my job, I’ll lose my friends . . . “
He added, “Part of the illness is that it lies to you. It says ‘no one will talk to you again. You will lose your job; everyone will be embarrassed to be around you . . . ‘ the illness is a liar that lives in your head.
“You would never let anyone talk to you the way you talk to you when you’re not well. You would never talk to anyone else like that and you would never let anyone talk to you like that.”
Gallagher, who reprises his role in The Young Offenders and appears in the new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins, was on O’Connor’s afternoon show to take part in a regular item in which guests talk about five songs that have had a profound impact on their lives.
Brendan O’Connor pictured with PJ Gallagher
He chose tracks by Damien Dempsey, Tom Waits, The Fat Lady Sings, a song from Christy Dignam’s solo album, and the theme tune from TV series Minder, which he dedicated to his Nova co-host Jim McCabe.
He also recalled how he became involved in Dublin’s booming music scene in the late eighties and early nineties, attending gigs in long-gone Dublin venues such as the Baggot Inn, McGonagles and the Underground.
“I was just coming into my formative teenage years and it was a really important time for Irish music,” he said. “You had all these bands, local people who you felt were like you.
“Bands like An Emotional Fish and The Stunning started to come on the scene, A-House were the coolest people I’d ever seen, The Frank and Walters were coming out of Cork . . . “
Gallagher rose to fame on RTÉ sketch show Naked Camera
He continued, “There just seemed to be this real happening band thing, everyone was in band. Even if they couldn’t play an instrument, they were going to get a bass guitar and join a band.”
Gallagher was also asked how his twins, son Milo and daughter Stevie, who he shares with his partner, Kelly Doolin, were doing.
“I’m wrecked!” he said. “They’re perfect but we’re destroyed, really tired.
“We’re just out of the woods now. We’re in the place now when you start to enjoy them and they’re funny and their personalities come through. It’s really nice now – I don’t care what anyone says, the first two years are really tough.
“I always said becoming a dad would be the one thing I would never do. I had such negative ideas of what a family was and how they worked and I was actively running away from it and then it just happens and two come along at once – and it’s just wild.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please see RTÉ’s list of helplines