Highland Radio - The Greg Hughes Show
Oct 23, 2026 · 57 min · 12 segments
!https://highlandradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Greg-and-Nikki.pngFor years, Nikki Hayes was one of the most recognizable voices on Irish radio. From RTÉ 2FM to SPIN 1038, she enjoyed the…
Nikki HayesGuest
Greg HughesHost
Yeah, and often the places of refuge, you know, the scary places to sleep, to have your stuff, or if you want to avoid exposure to things.
but the weird thing is, right, at the time I never noticed anyone would recognise me, but after my story came out in the Sunday Independent, there was a guy, Jamie, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me, I don't know him at all, but he contacted me on social media and he worked at one of the food banks and he said he saw me and he was shocked, but he knew I was working part of the soup runs, not to embarrass me by coming over.
And another guy got in touch with the radio station that I'd done the interview with and said he had been working on a 24-hour bus in Dublin and had seen me go forwards and backwards on the bus a few times and couldn't figure out what was going on so there was probably more but um yeah they're the two stories that i know of
and you have to give up so much don't you it's the access to a shower the access to a toilet the the sense of security and a lot of that's actually exacerbated because you know you might be more vulnerable because you're a woman
Yeah, well, like, I mean, the only place that you could use the toilet, believe it or not, was Supermax on O'Connell Street.
And there was Brother Luke's up on Church Street, which provides you with, you know, a hot meal.
But they would give you clean underwear, clean socks, and then you could have a proper meal down at the lighthouse.
So if you know where to go and you learn that from other people when you're on the street, there's actually quite a lot of food available.
The problem is the shelter, the go to the toilet, the cleaning yourself, all those things, you know, they're practical.
But like if you, I felt I was in the state of shock all the time walking around, like, okay, I'm going to need to go to the toilet probably in an hour.
the food so do you arrive there an hour beforehand you know there's a lot of that and you just walk walk walk because you've nowhere to go and no shop's gonna let you in because you look homeless
it's astonishing and just on the homelessness we talk about it an awful lot in this country and uh you know a lot of people think it's literally just getting a house for everyone or accommodation for everyone but you've got the insight there if we're serious about tackling homelessness there's a whole plethora of wraparound services that are needed.
A lot of people can't just go from homelessness into an apartment or a flat or a house.
There's an awful lot going on and I think sometimes that nuance is lost in the national conversation.
Like there's a lot of outreach workers who'd be on the streets of Dublin and I presume Cork or wherever else has homeless services and they wouldn't be trained in addiction services, but they're dealing with people who a huge majority are addicted and people with mental health issues, you know, so they're not really trained to do that.
So the wraparound service is to have these You know, councillors need to be tied into these services.
Yeah, and often the places of refuge, you know, the scary places to sleep, to have your stuff, or if you want to avoid exposure to things.
but the weird thing is, right, at the time I never noticed anyone would recognise me, but after my story came out in the Sunday Independent, there was a guy, Jamie, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me, I don't know him at all, but he contacted me on social media and he worked at one of the food banks and he said he saw me and he was shocked, but he knew I was working part of the soup runs, not to embarrass me by coming over.
And another guy got in touch with the radio station that I'd done the interview with and said he had been working on a 24-hour bus in Dublin and had seen me go forwards and backwards on the bus a few times and couldn't figure out what was going on so there was probably more but um yeah they're the two stories that i know of
and you have to give up so much don't you it's the access to a shower the access to a toilet the the sense of security and a lot of that's actually exacerbated because you know you might be more vulnerable because you're a woman
Yeah, well, like, I mean, the only place that you could use the toilet, believe it or not, was Supermax on O'Connell Street.
And there was Brother Luke's up on Church Street, which provides you with, you know, a hot meal.
But they would give you clean underwear, clean socks, and then you could have a proper meal down at the lighthouse.
So if you know where to go and you learn that from other people when you're on the street, there's actually quite a lot of food available.
The problem is the shelter, the go to the toilet, the cleaning yourself, all those things, you know, they're practical.
But like if you, I felt I was in the state of shock all the time walking around, like, okay, I'm going to need to go to the toilet probably in an hour.
the food so do you arrive there an hour beforehand you know there's a lot of that and you just walk walk walk because you've nowhere to go and no shop's gonna let you in because you look homeless
it's astonishing and just on the homelessness we talk about it an awful lot in this country and uh you know a lot of people think it's literally just getting a house for everyone or accommodation for everyone but you've got the insight there if we're serious about tackling homelessness there's a whole plethora of wraparound services that are needed.
A lot of people can't just go from homelessness into an apartment or a flat or a house.
There's an awful lot going on and I think sometimes that nuance is lost in the national conversation.
Like there's a lot of outreach workers who'd be on the streets of Dublin and I presume Cork or wherever else has homeless services and they wouldn't be trained in addiction services, but they're dealing with people who a huge majority are addicted and people with mental health issues, you know, so they're not really trained to do that.
So the wraparound service is to have these You know, councillors need to be tied into these services.
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