Tear Down These Walls

Episode 23 – Debbie O’Neill: The Children We See, The Children We Miss In this episode of Tear Down These Walls, I sit down with Debbie O’Neill, principal of Scoil Eoin in Crumlin, a school supporting children with mild learning difficulties, many of whom come from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. What followed was one of the most powerful conversations I’ve had on the podcast. Debbie h...

Episode 22 of Tear Down These Walls, Breaking Through Silence features Dara Gray. Dara speaks openly and honestly about growing up alongside his older brother Donal, who is autistic and has severe intellectual disabilities. Unlike his mother, who experienced life before Donal, Dara never knew anything different. From childhood, his world revolved around routines, unpredictability, care plans, emot...

Episode 21 of Tear Down These Walls is a deeply moving conversation with Orla — a mother whose story reminds us that pain, love, and resilience don’t belong to any one background. Orla reached out to me after listening to the podcast, sharing how she connected with stories from a completely different world to her own. She grew up in a stable home, with education, opportunity, and no addiction or c...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains open conversations about addiction, suicide ideation, and loss. Episode 20 welcomes Robert Farrell, a deeply thoughtful and unassuming man whose story is one of survival, honesty, and never giving up. Rob grew up in Trim, Co. Meath, in a loving family, but bullying in secondary school changed the course of his life. Feeling like an outsider, he searched for b...

In this deeply moving episode, Lisa Byrne sits down with Michael Nolan, known to many as Mikey — a recovering alcoholic and gambling addict from Arklow whose story is one of loss, resilience, and quiet strength. Mikey speaks openly about entering treatment in Bruree, Co. Limerick in 2014 and the journey that has kept him sober ever since. For the first time, he shares the depth of grief he has car...

Episode 18 – Burnout, The Berlin Paradox & The Quiet Whispers We Ignore In this solo episode of Tear Down These Walls – Breaking Through Silence, Lisa Byrne reflects on burnout through the lens of healing, addiction, and self-discovery. Inspired by behavioural psychologist Lena Hoffman’s idea of the “Berlin Paradox,” this conversation explores how sometimes the very act of constantly “doing th...

n Episode 17 of Tear Down These Walls, I sit down with Mark Burke from Summerhill — just a stone’s throw from Sheriff Street — for one of the most insightful and honest conversations we’ve had about gambling addiction. Mark speaks openly about growing up with a mother who lived with depression, and how that environment became his “normal.” It wasn’t until he entered therapy years later that he beg...

Grief has been a constant companion in my life. In this solo episode, I speak openly about what it means to grow up with loss and how grief has shaped my identity, my relationships, my choices, my breakdowns, and my rebuilding. Although grief was familiar to me, losing my husband brought me to my knees. He had become my safety, my repair, my home. In losing him, I didn’t just lose one person — I l...

In this episode, I sit down with Michelle Martin Boylan, a woman originally from Sheriff Street whose journey looks very different to many of the stories we’re used to hearing — and yet carries its own depth, pain, and healing. Michelle describes herself as a shy, quiet child who loved her own company and books. She wasn’t a street kid and didn’t get caught up in much of the activity that surround...

In Episode 14, I sit down with Zach, a 23-year-old young man who truly lights up a room. His warmth, humour, and openness are felt instantly — even as he speaks about some of the most painful experiences of his life. Zach shares honestly about living with anxiety, being in and out of hospital, and his experience with anorexia, which developed alongside a severe skin condition that deeply affected...

Paddy’s story is a reminder that addiction doesn’t come from one place, one background, or one type of childhood. Born and raised in Skerries, Paddy describes a good, stable upbringing. No major childhood trauma. Four sisters. A shy young man who loved music and formed a heavy metal band while still in secondary school. College, America, freedom — and then drugs. What began as confidence and escap...

In this episode, I sit down with Eamonn, who grew up in Sheriff Street in the 1980s, one of five children raised by a father doing his best after their mother left for England when life became too heavy to carry. Eamonn speaks honestly about growing up without a mother, the silence and confusion that followed, and how that absence shaped his sense of self from a young age. He reflects on life in t...

In Episode 11, I sit down with Jonathan, a 33-year-old man whose story is rooted in resilience, reflection, and breaking generational cycles. Jonathan grew up in Summerhill, Sean Tracy Flats, just minutes from Sheriff Street — an environment very similar in many ways. Like so many of us, the flats became the playground, a place where childhood unfolded amid drugs, crime, and survival from morning...

In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Carroll, my cousin Christine’s brother-in-law, whose story offers a different starting point, but a very familiar ending. Kevin grew up in Marino, in a stable home, with parents who ran a pub on the North Strand. He wasn’t shaped by poverty, criminality, or educational disadvantage in the way many others were: yet from a young age, Kevin speaks honestly about...

Episode 9 brings a deeply personal conversation with someone very close to my heart: my godmother, Debbie O’Toole. Born and raised in Sheriff Street, Debbie carries a life story filled with both beautiful memories and some of the darkest experiences a child could witness. Debbie speaks openly about growing up in a community marked by love, chaos, and survival. As a young girl, she witnessed trauma...

In episode 8, I sit down with 55-year-old Davie Fay from Sheriff Street, who talks about growing up when the flats felt like a giant playground – and how that same environment pulled him out of school at 10 and into Boscos, a “special” school set up for lads like him.  Davie shares how early school exclusion and life on the streets paved the way to heroine use, and how losing his brother Nico and...

Danny didn’t grow up in Sheriff Street, but he was always close by in Ballybough — another pocket of Dublin where grit, humour, and hardship live side by side. In this episode, Danny opens up about the impact school had on him, and how those early experiences chipped away at his self-belief and followed him into adulthood. He speaks about the band he once performed in, the rush of a little bit of...

In this episode, I sit down with my daughter Carla, who is 22, for the most personal and powerful conversation I’ve ever recorded. Together, we talk openly about her experience of growing up around addiction and criminality, the impact of losing her dad, and how all of that shaped her childhood, her education, and the way she learned to navigate life’s challenges long before she should have had to...

Episode 5 · Rhonda’s Story — Strength in Silence In this episode, I sit down with my cousin Rhonda, the third of nine children from Sheriff Street. At just nine years old, Rhonda suffered a stroke that left her without movement on the right side of her body: her arm and leg. She spent a year in hospital for rehabilitation, working closely with a speech and language therapist who helped her regain...

Episode 4: Amy — Losing her Ma, Finding Herself. In this episode, I sit down with my cousin Amy: a girl from Sheriff Street who grew up with her ma by her side through everything. When Amy found her ma suddenly passed away last year, her world fell apart. What started as weekend drinking turned into addiction, anxiety, and trying to numb the pain any way she could. Today, Amy is 9 weeks sober, sho...

In this powerful episode of Tear Down These Walls, Lisa Byrne sits down with her cousin Emer, whose life has been marked by unimaginable pain: addiction, violence, and loss - but also by an extraordinary journey of faith and redemption. Emer opens up about her past with raw honesty, sharing how she found the strength to rebuild her life and how her faith became her saving grace. This is a story of...

Christine Byrne Carroll shares her journey from Sheriff Street to Trinity College - facing the pain of losing her brother and the fear of nearly losing her son. A powerful story of resilience, courage and the belief that its never too late to begin again.

Real stories of loss, love and resilience - told with honesty and heart. From Dublin's inner city to personal transformation, Lisa Byrne shares conversations that break silence and build hope.