Derry All-Ireland winner and former RTÉ pundit Joe Brolly has revealed he and his wife have welcomed the arrival of their first child.
Mr Brolly described the birth as an “emergency” but said the baby girl and mother Laurita Blewitt are doing well.
The former footballer revealed details of the birth and his reaction on his ‘Free State Podcast’ co-hosted with Dion Fanning.
It is the barrister’s first child with Ms Blewitt, a broadcaster, following their marriage in Co Mayo two years ago. Ms Blewitt is a relative of US President Joe Biden. Mr Brolly has five children from his first marriage.
In an emotionally-charged segment on the show. Mr Brolly described the events around the birth were “very overwhelming” and holding the baby for the first time was ‘as close to paradise as any human being can get.’
The 55-year-old said: “You can savour it. I’m in the middle of a trial so I’m dashing back and forth. But you sit there with the baby in your arms for three or four hours and it is as close to paradise I think as a human being can get. If you are in the right situation, with the right person.
“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.”
Mr Brolly, originally from Dungiven, added: “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.
“Whenever I went in, it looked like the first scene of childbrith - 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.”
