Causes of stress
My schedule depends on the day of the week. I have an office at home where I do some academic work. I run five outpatient clinics a week: Monday, Wednesday, two on Thursday and Friday. I also have ward rounds and teaching conferences to contend with. I'm on call every third week.
I travel a lot because of my research interests. I travel around Europe, where I chair the Motor Neurone Disease Society. I think stress is inevitable, and anybody who works gets stressed. I usually work a little at night as well. There are nights when I don't get home until 8p.m., and on one day of the week I have to pick up my daughter from Irish dancing. I usually spend some time getting the kids organised for school, and I'll often be back in the office in the house at about 10p.m., interacting on e-mail and trying to sort out or edit papers.
I've a lot of administrative and academic work. At weekends, Saturday is usually a day for running around with the kids and tidying up the house. We sometimes entertain friends as well at the weekends. I'll always end up in the office at some point.
I live in Clonskeagh, so I do the big commute every day. When I'm coming home, it's usually outside rush-hour, but in the morning, you just grit your teeth and bear it.
Coping with stress
I don't "do" golf. But I'm quite interested in politics and current affairs. As I've become older, I've become more interested in directing policy, and I'm reasonably well up on current affairs. I also usually have a couple of novels going at the same time. I also used to play the traditional flute - I come from a moderately musical family. I listen to a lot of classical music and I like to listen to music in the car. I especially like Maria Callas. I have two brothers who are musical. My older brother, Enda, and I play together a couple of times a year, and my younger brother, Ronan Hardiman, is a well-known composer. When we go on holidays, we usually go down to my parents in Kerry. This year we also went to Italy for two weeks, but we usually stay in Ireland.
Busy life
My husband is a lawyer, and we have five children: Tommy (13), Brighid (11), Aonghus (nine) and Rionach (15 months). For the first three, I didn't take any maternity leave. I had the baby in December and started back lecturing in January! The last baby, who's now 15 months, was the first one where I actually took my maternity leave. I didn't know myself. My husband and I have always worked, and we've always had people minding them, whether living in or various other arrangements. We have a brilliant woman now.
In conversation with Elaine Edwards