About this season
The Meaning of Life is an Irish television programme, the first series of which was broadcast on RTÉ One in 2009. It is presented by the veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne. Each episode involves Byrne interviewing a well-known public figure. The series is broadcast each Sunday night at 22:20. In 2010 The Meaning of Life returned for both a second and, later, a third series. Interviews with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and actors Gabriel Byrne and Brenda Fricker during the second series attracted media attention when they spoke of their religious habits and child sexual abuse respectively. Gay Byrne appeared on The Late Late Show on 18 December 2009 to discuss the programme. A fourth series soon followed. Then a fifth series from January 2012. And a sixth in October 2012. And a seventh in January 2013.
Episodes (6)
1. Michael Parkinson
Aired 6 March 2011 • 27 min
In the chair is Gay’s long-time friend and former colleague, Sir Michael Parkinson. The two of them worked together in the early days of Granada TV, including the night The Beatles made their television debut. Paul McCartney asked Parky for his autograph… for his Mum. The band also asked the young Gay Byrne to manage them. He said ‘No’!
2. Brendan O'Carroll
Aired 13 March 2011 • 28 min
Brendan O’Carroll tells Gay Byrne, the man who discovered him, how much his TV character Mrs Brown owes to his Mum, an ex-nun, pioneering Labour T.D. and widowed mother of eleven.
3. Abbot Mark Patrick Henderman
Aired 20 March 2011 • 27 min
The Abbot of Glenstal is a paradox: a priest who never wanted to be a priest, who freely describes the Church to which he has given his life as "a dinosaur". Expect the unexpected, as Gay asks him life's big questions.
4. Brian Cody
Aired 27 March 2011 • 27 min
Kilkenny GAA legend, Brian Cody tells Gay Byrne why he's never been tempted to leave the faith - or for that matter, the county - of his upbringing.
5. Martin Sheen
Aired 3 April 2011 • 39 min
On a day when his son, Charlie, appeared to be committing career suicide, Martin Sheen spoke to Gay Byrne with remarkable openness about his family, his faith and his film career - three strands which come together in his latest movie, The Way.
6. Ben Dunne
Aired 10 April 2011 • 27 min
Even before the Moriarty tribunal had branded his behaviour "profoundly corrupt", Ben Dunne admitted to Gay Byrne he'd been "a complete eejit" in his past dealings with politicians. His colourful life has included several brushes with death, an IRA kidnapping and a chequered relationship with Charlie Haughey. He reveals how it was the infamous events in a Florida hotel room that put him on the road to redemption.