Colm O’Regan is quick to admit that first-time fatherhood isn’t the easiest gig: “I work for my wife in a job called Raising Ruby. It doesn’t mean that I’m off the hook but Marie is the real expert,” the Dripsey, Co Cork, native tells Irish Country Living.

“I’m more of a senior manager but there’s no one under me, which leaves me with a great title but no one to pass responsibilities off to. There are days though when I’m with Ruby and I observe something that I then feed into the general database of what she needs,” he says.

Colm and his wife Marie welcomed their daughter into the world last October and the experience has given him a whole new insight into the lives of Irish mothers.

Some readers will recognise Colm as the man behind our Irish Mammy column, and the author of three books based on the character created through @irishmammies on Twitter.

He created the account in 2011 and quickly gained traction posting all too familiar quips like: “Is THAT what you’re wearing? What about the one I got you?” and “Now? Aren’t you glad you brought the coat?” It currently has a staggering 204,000 followers.

“I was writing a web series for a company and was photoshopping tweets that Irish mammies might send. Then I just set up the account,” he explains

“Whatever move I made, as Jon Kenny said in the d’Unbelievables, didn’t the first few tweets I send resonate and then I suddenly realised Irish Mammy was more popular than I was.”

Colm admits that his own mother, Eileen (“I suspect the name is on the way back, because Mary is back now,” he observes) has inspired some of the material for Irish Mammies.

“She is very much of a particular time, but is very aware of what’s going on and up to date,” he says. “I think it’s the radio …”

From computers to comedy

Colm worked “in computers” in Dublin for 10 years before deciding to pursue comedy and writing full time, a decision supported by his mother.

“I had been doing a little bit of comedy at night since 2006. In the early days, she would have seen it as a hobby, like the way someone would play astroturf on a Tuesday night. I would have been doing festivals and a few trips abroad, but it certainly wouldn’t have been something worth remarking on,” he says. “Then I started to get really miserable at work and that sort of thing, so I decided to do it full time. Understanding what’s important in life, she told me to go for it. I think people above a certain age don’t care. Happiness is the most important thing.”

Colm’s writing, like much his comedy, is inspired by his own rural upbringing on a small farm. Speaking about the character in the Irish Country Living column, who is married with three children and lives in the fictional village of Kilsudgeon, Colm believes she is “kind of practical” when it comes to accepting the lives and choices of her children.

“Some of it is notions and the rest is ‘that’s the way it is now, I suppose’, as she would say. She doesn’t really have a choice. There are two ways you can react to the modern world: either rail against it and say everything is a disgrace, or accept that things change and get on with your life. That’s where she’s coming from.”

Parenthood, as Colm has discovered, is all-encompassing.

“There’s a before-you-have-your-baby and an after-you-have-a-baby – they are two different things,” he says.

“I always knew there would be work to do, but not how all-encompassing it would be.

“I do voice-overs and it’s very hard for people to tell you what they want because they can’t tell you in your own voice. It’s like when you’ve done the right thing, we’ll know. I find that with Ruby. Is it this? No. Is it this? No,” he says.

“I could be dancing around on one foot, and she’ll like it. Then I’ll call Marie over and she’ll stop liking it, just at that moment. [Parenthood] is the constant figuring out what she wants,” he jokes.

Mother’s day clash

We ask Colm about his plans for Marie’s first Mother’s Day, but it turns out that this is a sensitive topic at the moment.

“I have a gig in Ennis for Mother’s Day, and then I realised I wouldn’t be with the mother of my child on Mother’s Day. That has been noted for future reference, but I will celebrate for the last time in the company of everyone else’s mother,” he says.

Between his column for Irish Country Living, the Irish Examiner, his ‘daddy blog’ for magicmum.ie and gigging, Colm is, as mammy might say, kept going.

“There’s always something,” he says, “I suppose I’m tipping away…”?

Visit www.colmoregan.com or irishmammies.ie for more.