Miriam O'Callaghan reveals how son’s illness following sports injury affected her badly

The mother of eight opened up about her fears after one of her four sons was left in critical condition after the incident.

"I am unflappable about everything except the health of my children,” she told RTE.

“One of my boys was very sick a couple of years back, he got an injury on the sports field, and he ended up being critically ill. I wasn’t great then.

“I really do think that old maxim is true: your health is your wealth,” she continued.

“I never understand why people sweat the small things. I am probably unflappable because I realise that most things in life don’t matter that much. All that really matters is your health, your happiness, and that you are kind to people. That’s about it."

In the candid interview, the 62-year-old opened up about grief following the death of her sister Anne at aged 33 in 1995.

"People say that time heals, but you are not meant to get over something like that,” she said.

“I remember when I first met my beautiful husband Stephen, we worked together on BBC Newsnight. He was my producer, and I was a reporter.

“He worked in Belfast, and I worked in Dublin. His mom had died from cancer when he was four years old, and it only came up in conversation at the time, because my sister had so recently died,” she continued.

“We talked about how people talk about how much they miss the person who is gone, but that really, it’s so unfair on them.

“It’s so unfair on the person whose life has been snuffed out. I feel sad for them that they’re gone too quickly.”

Despite her heartache, Miriam said she is not preoccupied with getting older.

“I am not like that. My life has been very similar since about my mid-20s; becoming a mom and having babies, and then you’re working away.

"This is my life. I have this thing about life which is doing everything the moment you think of it,” she said.

Sharing her life motto she said: “You know the way people long-finger things? When I get something to do, I do it immediately. People ask what the secret is of having a so-called successful life, a busy career and a lot of children. I say, ‘do things immediately. Don’t procrastinate, just do it.’”

“Then I don’t have to worry about waking in the middle of the night going ‘Ah! I forgot about that’.”