Annmarie O’Connor on Twitch: My Life with Parkinson’s

Irish Examiner Fashion Editor Annmarie O’Connor is well known to
readers as a stylist, a writer, and more recently an advocate for
people with Parkinson’s disease. 


She was the keynote speaker at Thursday’s IEStyleLive2025, and
she is the guest editor of this Saturday’s Weekend Magazine.
Annmarie sat down with Deirdre O’Shaughnessy for an honest and
open chat about her life as it is now and her new book Twitch: My
Life with Parkinson’s.  


In this special episode of The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast,
Annmarie speaks candidly about learning to live well with
Parkinson’s, how her family’s history has shaped her, and
her belief in the spirit world. 


“You’ll go on, dear, because you have to, and you’ll do it one
day at a time,” is what her mother told her upon learning of her
diagnosis. “One foot in front of the other” is the family motto,
learned in adversity. 


The trajectory of Annmarie's family life was altered by the death
of her father when she was just four years old, her mother
returning from New York to rural Galway with her daughters to
open a B&B. She describes her father’s mother, sent to
America by ship at just seven years old to work in the
household of a distant cousin, and the survival skills of her
maternal grandmother, who raised her young family alone after her
husband was killed at sea in a freak Galway storm.  


In this in-depth interview, Annmarie describes how a long-buried
issue with disordered eating resurfaced after her Parkinson’s
diagnosis, and how she dealt with it. She talks about her belief
in psychics and the spirit world, the joy she has found in
friendships and the love of her family, and the challenge of
dating with the additional stress of uncontrollable limb
movements.  


Inspiring, full-hearted and hopeful, Annmarie's is a story of
surviving the worst that life can throw at you, and learning to
thrive with it.  


ieStyle Live: Standing ovation as Annmarie O’Connor speaks
about when 'life falls apart' 


Book review: O’Connor finds quiet certainty to carry on
after Parkinson’s diagnosis 


Annmarie O'Connor: Three things I've learned since my
Parkinson's diagnosis 


'I arrived at CUH before 9am. By 4pm, I had been diagnosed
with Parkinson’s disease' 





Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.