Former RTE GAA pundit Joe Brolly and wife Laurita Blewitt welcome first child

Former RTE GAA pundit Joe Brolly and Mayo radio host and podcaster Laurita Blewitt have welcomed a baby girl, their first child together.

The couple welcomed their daughter after an 'emergency' birth, but both mother and daughter are doing well.

Speaking of the happy occasion on his 'Free State Podcast' with Dion Fanning on Monday, Mr Brolly described the feeling of holding his child for the first time  'as close to paradise as any human being can get.'

The Knockmore, Co Mayo, woman, who is a relative of US president Joe Biden, married the GAA pundit in an intimate ceremony of 100 family and friends at the Ice House Hotel in Ballina two years ago. 

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Mr Brolly, who has five children from his former marriage, told the podcast of the worry and then wonder of the new arrival.

"It's something that takes you out of yourself and gives you a sense of peace and joy that is hard to communicate with anyone who hasn't had that.

"As these things are when you have control over them… at one point it got very scary and became an emergency, and they couldn't get the baby out. It was a huge collection of doctors and anaesthetists then in the theatre," added the Derry man.

"Whenever I went in, it looked like the first scene of childbirth - the musical, and me being me, the fear and all that, I cracked a joke which went down like a lead balloon obviously at that stage. It's a funny thing. When it all turned out well, they are both bruised and battered, it's as if it never happened. We are very good at putting traumas behind us.

"I still haven't burst out crying yet, and I'm not going to on this podcast, but it's all very overwhelming. I think also now because I'm older now and have seen a lot of the world, you are able better to roll with it,” he told the Podcast.

Ms Blewitt, who works for Mayo Roscommon Hospice, was a former employee of The Mayo News, having worked in the advertising department for a number of years. She is best known for her part in the hugely successful 'Tommy, Hector and Laurita' podcast, with comedians Tommy Tiernan and Hector Hector Ó hEochagáin, which came to an end five months ago. 

The podcast had consistently been one of the most listened to in the country since its inception in September 2020.