Offaly singer will feature in new series of popular RTE show

TULLAMORE singer songwriter Tolü Makay will feature in the new season of the popular TV show The Meaning of Life.

Makay, a past pupil of Scoil Mhuire National School and Tullamore College and a graduate of the University of Galway, came to national prominence when she sang the Saw Doctors song N17 live on an RTE television New Year's Eve countdown show in 2020.

Born in Nigeria and resident in Ireland since she was five, she sang with the choir in her local Pentecostal church in Tullamore when she was growing up.

Other guests in what will be the 17th season of The Meaning of Life will be Eurovision winner Johnny Logan, writer Alice Taylor, former chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, former Presidential candidate and founding chief executive of Chernobyl Children’s International, Adi Roche, world champion sprinter, Jason Smyth, Alliance Party leader, Naomi Long and the interviewee for the first episode on Sunday, September 3, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

In the Meaning of Life, Joe Duffy gives public and influential figures the opportunity to reveal how their lives have shaped, or been shaped by, their experiences, choices, values and beliefs.

The extended interview with former Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin will mark the 100th episode of the programme.

Archbishop Martin talks candidly and emotionally about dealing with the clerical child sex abuse scandals in his former Archdiocese of Dublin, sharing his insights into the behaviour and motivation of perpetrators, their impact on victims, and how publicly addressing that wrong became a priority for him, despite resistance from within the Church.

RTE also says that with “remarkable honesty”, he reveals the difficulties he faced as a seminarian.

The first presenter of The Meaning of Life was the late Gay Byrne. It airs for eight weeks at 10.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player from September 3.