C&TH Meets Dermot O’Leary To Talk All Things Taste Of Ireland

When it first launched in September 2024, Dermot’s Taste of Ireland was an instant hit. Helmed by beloved broadcaster Dermot O’Leary, the five-part travelogue spanned Kinsale to Cork, Wexford to Dublin, sampling all of the Emerald Isle’s best-kept, most-delicious secrets en route, from Irish stew to soda bread, fresh seafood to boxty potato pancakes. The breathtaking landscapes glimpsed on the journey are, of course, an added bonus.

Finally back for series 2, here C&TH sits down with Dermot to get the inside scoop on Taste of Ireland.

Q&A: Dermot O’Leary On The Return Of Taste Of Ireland

Dermot’s Taste of Ireland series 2 takes in the scenery from Derry to Sligo.

Hi Dermot! You are back with your new series Dermot’s Taste of Ireland. Tell us about it.

We had such a wonderful time filming the first series around Wexford and Cork. And this one is a road trip from heaven. It’s along the Causeway Coast to the Wild Atlantic Way, going to Derry, Donegal and down to Sligo. You know about the Wild Atlantic Way, but the Causeway Coast is just as spectacular. That sense of space and wilderness…

I wanted to do a proper travelogue and see Ireland through second generation eyes, to tell all its history and great colour as well as showing a modern take on the country. We filmed it last summer and the weather was just unbelievable. When I saw the first drone shots, I said, ‘They are going to do us under the Trades Descriptions Act,’ because Ireland looked so beautiful! It looked like California.

You visit some incredible food and drink producers, meeting everyone from chefs to beekeepers, foragers to bakers. Is there a real boom in the Irish food scene? 

It’s very hard not to go beef, fish and dairy in Ireland. The Irish are so great for that. But there are great stories wherever you go like Abdul, the beekeeper in Donegal. He was a schoolteacher in Syria and escaped the war. When you sit down with him, you realise how unbelievably traumatic it must be to leave your life with your family, the world you love and get on a boat. He thought he would go to Germany, stay for two years and then go home. And then they said to him, ‘Right, have you heard of Donegal?’ He gets to Donegal and then it’s the kindness of strangers, of people helping him. He is from a long line of beekeepers, becomes chairman of the local beekeeping association and is able to start a business. Everyone loves him because the honey’s amazing. He’s got citizenship and that’s his home now. It was an emotional and very modern story.

Dermot with Abdul Rahman Ahmad at Donagh Bee Hives in episode 6.

We also met a guy whose father had died and split up his land and gave him a part which was this quite enchanted, Tolkien mushroom forest. He quit his job in Dublin, came home and now he cultivates and forages mushrooms. I love those wonderful individual and community stories.

You go to Sligo and visit W. B. Yeats grave. Are you a fan of his?

Yeats and Brendan Behan were two of the writers that I grew up reading. Both were very different writers and people. What I love about Yeats is there’s a real journey to his life and poetry. There’s that lovely combination of that mysticism of the land and the paganism, the fairies. I’ve got a book of his collected poems that my parents got me and I delve into it all the time. I also like Joseph O’Connor, who wrote Star of the Sea. I got into him about 10 years ago.

You also surfed in Sligo with the very inclusive female-founded Rebelle Surf. How was that?

That was a great day. The school was created to balance the relatively masculine state of surfing. On the day, the sea was unbelievably choppy and messy. I got quite good at surfing when I spent a lot of time in America and took lessons. Whenever I get the opportunity to go, I do. I can get back up and stand up. I’m not the world’s most beautiful surfer by any stretch, but I really enjoy it.

Dermot with Rebelle Surf’s Jen Hallam at Strandhill Beach.

You are very proud of your Irish heritage. Were your summer holidays always spent in County Wexford, where your parents are from?

Back then we would have the car packed and go all the way from Colchester to Fishguard and get the ferry over. What we knew we knew very, very well – it was confined to Wexford and Dublin. Back in the day, if I was to go anywhere else on holiday, we would have been excommunicated! Now we are also going to places that I have wanted to go to since I was a kid. That’s the lovely thing about doing this show.

Have you taken your family there, and is your son aware of his roots?

My mum and dad have moved back to Wexford and I miss them. We visit with our son. I am very careful that I don’t want to force anything of his heritage on him. I want to make it as natural as possible. But he needs to work out who he supports in football and rugby! I’m only one half of this team. I’ve got a Norwegian wife, so he has to be acutely aware of his Norwegian heritage too.

You also visit a Gaeltacht Irish-speaking area in Donegal. How was that?

Donegal is so special and the revival of the Irish language is brilliant. When I call my mum, I get a little bit of Irish to start with. She’s become really attuned and proud of it since she moved back.

Dermot at Kinbane Castle.

You are known for your dance moves on your Radio 2 Saturday show. Have you ever done Irish dancing? 

No. I’m in awe of it though. I did the Ceiliúradh (Celebration) when President Higgins came over in 2014 for the state visit. There was an event at the Royal Albert Hall with a collection of singers and dancers. It blew me away.

What else have you got coming up?

I’ve done a series of children’s books about my cat being an international Ninja. There’s a play about it, Toto the Ninja Cat and The Great Snake Escape, which is in the Little Angel Theatre, Islington from May, and then it tours.

You’re also hosting Soccer Aid on 31 May…

I’m one of the producers and one of my jobs is to coax people in. I’m the whisperer! We’ve got Chris O’Dowd in goal.

And hopefully more Taste of Ireland series?

I would really love to do four in total. One around Kerry and then one more central around the waterways. As long as there are stories to tell, I will carry on doing it.

Dermot’s Taste Of Ireland returns to ITV1 at midday, Saturday 2 May 2026. Catch up on ITVX.