Mary Coughlan

“I could have died and I’m not thinking about that, but I did think about it and I was really down about it,” says Irish singer Mary Coughlan on the latest Róisín Meets podcast. Not long after her 60th birthday last year, Coughlan began keeping a diary cataloguing the symptoms she was experiencing as a result of severe chest pain that forced her to cancel a number of shows. She tells Róisín Ingle how, after being misdiagnosed with lung problems and leaving one hospital with “ninety Solpadeine” and anxiety medication, she was told by a consultant that she had multiple blockages in two of her arteries and would have to have stents fitted to her heart. Also on the podcast, Coughlan speaks about working on her mental health with the psychiatrist Ivor Browne, making peace with the past and her plans for a “huge musical extravaganza” with the theatre company Brokentalkers. Mary Coughlan performs live in concert on Saturday, 13th May 2017 at Vicar Street in Dublin. Tickets are on sale now.