'None of us knows what's around the corner': Charlie Bird on an extraordinary year  

“I wish I could help you all,” he said in a Tweet earlier in December, explaining how the love and affection he was receiving from people from all corners of the country was keeping him motivated.

“And I am not going to stop while I can still draw a breath,” he pledged, stating that his next project was to raise awareness for the work of the Samaritans.

Ever since his diagnosis with motor neurone disease (MND) just over a year ago, Bird has barely done that - drawn breath.

His wife Claire Mould has been his “rock”, he says, adding she has been by his side for “every step of this dreadful journey”.

“There have been, and will be, times at night when we both shed tears,” he says. 

“We have an amazing relationship. We look at ourselves as a team and work as a partnership.”

Within the past 12 months, Bird has published two books and participated in a documentary on his life. Last April, his Climb with Charlie ascent of Croagh Patrick raised over €3.5m for two charities, Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Pieta, Ireland’s national suicide prevention charity.

Some of the monies have already been dedicated to a respite centre for motor neurone disease near Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, named The Bird House. And Pieta House has earmarked some of the funds it received for crisis intervention and a new therapy room in its Swords centre, also in Dublin.

In his book Time and Tide, written with former RTÉ news editor and colleague Ray Burke, Bird has expressed his sheer delight at the response to his climb and gratitude to the many individuals and organisations who provided support.

“I was blown away by the support I received from the general public,” he wrote. 

“The illness had upended my life entirely, but the support and the recognition I was getting from all over the country, and even from abroad, was what helped me to carry on.”

Reflecting on this past year for The Irish Examiner in response to a series of questions by e-mail, he notes that his journalist training had served him well in working to deadlines. 

The heavy workload has provided a welcome distraction from thinking about his terminal illness.

His low point is the day his diagnosis was confirmed, but he says there is “not enough space on paper” for his many highlights.

“It is mad to say this... every time I am stopped on the streets by a stranger wishing me well is a highlight. The love and the kindness from every corner of the country and abroad has just blown me away,” he says.

Completing the ascent and having “Daniel O Donnell singing, Matt Molloy playing his flute, and more than 30 members of the Clew Bay Pipe Band performing for the first time ever at the top of the holy mountain were all highlights,” he says.

To have “thousands and thousands of people all over the country and abroad climbing for me was more than a highlight - it was some amazing spirit grabbing hold of me and helping in an unimaginable way”, he says.

“In over 40 years in journalism and over 70 on earth, I have never experienced anything like it.”

Biography of the year

Most of the hard work on the photographic book of the climb, published by Merrion Press, was put in by Claire, he says. The book Cimb with Charlie was ready for publication in about four weeks.

“Time and Tide was totally different,” Bird explains of his most recent publication, which won the biography of the year category in the recent An Post book awards.

It started when Conor Nagle of Harper Collins rang him in December 2021 after his first Late Late Show appearance, where he spoke about his illness. Bird’s initial reaction was that he didn’t think it was possible. 

Then he had a brainwave and rang Ray Burke, who is in his West Awake WhatsApp group. Not only had Burke been Bird’s boss, but he had written several books.

“So we worked out chapter headlines, and Ray would send me questions, and I would get up each morning around six o’clock and give my thoughts and a rough outline...which Ray, with his magic and great skill, turned into what you see now in the book.”

It was a “great partnership” between two best mates, he says,

Bird was determined that it would be a “true reflection of my working career and what was happening to me with my illness”.

It took about five months to complete the book, and Bird included painful details, such as how he planned his funeral arrangements on the Aran island of Inis Oírr, his “home from home”.

“And when I decided to have my ashes interred on Inis Oírr, the first thing Claire asked was that there had to be space for her ashes when her time comes,” he says.

His dog Tiger has been a constant companion. 

“There are few words to describe what he means to myself and Claire. I never wanted a dog, not that I disliked them, I just had no interest,” Bird writes in his email response.

“When Claire moved in with me, she brought her dog’s ashes and put them under the bed. Right from the outset, she campaigned to get a dog. But I resisted her pleas,” he says.

“But about six years ago, when her dad died, I just gave in, and we got a puppy.

“Tiger has helped me to face my terminal illness - he is the most loving creature. There are nights when I go to bed crying my eyes out, Claire brings Tiger up to me in the bed and I can’t tell you how it helps me.

“I love this creature. Tiger comes with us everywhere we go, and in a way, he is the most photographed and famous dog in Ireland,” he says.

“This is the first time I have admitted this but sometimes when we are sitting on the sofa, and I am crying, I cuddle up to Tiger, and, yes, we rub noses together. This is mad, but Tiger is also a lifesaver for me,” he says.

Vicky Phelan friendship

Bird’s friendship with the late Vicky Phelan dates back to November last year after she had been on The Late Late Show.

“We arranged a meeting and we just hit it off as if we had been long-lost friends,” he says.

Her declining health meant they didn’t meet again, but they kept in touch by WhatsApp. Though she couldn’t join him on the Reek climb, her family participated, and her congratulatory phone call was broadcast live on the summit.

“Fair play to you, Charlie. You’re some man,” she said to loud cheers from the crowd.

“We struck up a great relationship, and she helped me enormously to cope. What a human being,” says Bird.

At her family’s request, he and Claire travelled to Vicky’s memorial service in Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny.

“If there is life after death, then when my time comes hopefully we will meet up again,” Bird says.

Bird has shown us how life can be lived with dignity and honesty despite a terminal diagnosis.

For “someone who might be reading this and has motor neurone disease, or some other terminal illness, just try and live every day as if it is your last, and try and stay strong while you can,” he says.

The couple will spend Christmas Day together and see his daughters Orla and Neasa and his grandchildren on Christmas Eve and Stephen’s Day. And there are plans to see Bruce Springsteen with Claire in Dublin in early May, but he admits he is scared about what his mobility will be like by then.

He says he would love to mark the first anniversary of the Climb with Charlie on April 2 with a day where ”everyone extends the hand of friendship”.

“None of us knows what might be around the corner and what someone standing close to us or sitting next to us in a café or a bus might be going through,” he says.

“And I have made a promise to myself that as long as I am mobile and alive, I want to keep helping people who are in what I describe as ‘dark places’ and have their own mountains to climb,” he says.

That’s why, he says, his next challenge is to help raise awareness for the Samaritans.