IMAGE The Motherload

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.