Bláthnaid Treacy is a busy woman. In fact, when we chat with her for this piece, she is en route to collect her 15-month-old daughter, Nancy after hosting an event.
She’s secured her own weekend radio show on 2FM this year, continuing to host The Chart Show every Friday night as well as presenting the National Lottery. She launched a podcast, The Handover with her pal, Laura Fox. But most importantly she’s a mother.
We catch up about the importance of taking some time for yourself, even if it is just at the dinner table, how life has been for her and what she has coming up next…
Hey Bláthnaid, how are you?
I’m good! I was hosting an event this morning, which went brilliantly and was so much fun. And I’m heading back out to Bray to pick up my daughter and like things are great, looking forward to winter, strangely enough. I had a great summer now, leaning into the winter vibes.
And winter is the perfect time to just spend time at home with your family. Especially around the dinner table…is that why you got involved with the SuperValu Dinner Time Well Spent Campaign?
Life is very hectic and it’s very busy, and my favourite part of the day is dinner time and just getting that time with my family. Sometimes we’ll have dinner after Nancy’s gone down so that Charlie and I can have a proper catch-up and just catch our breath. And just be like, “So what have you been doing?” Because it can be such a whirlwind. I know a lot of parents can understand that, and Nancy’s still very small, so she goes to bed quite early. But also, equally, it’s lovely when we get to have dinner with her there as well at the dinner table. Since becoming a mam, dinner time has just sort of become this sort of staple part of our day. I think before you’re just on the go, so you think, “Whatever. I’ll just have toast for dinner, or I’ll just do this, I’ll just do that.” Whereas now we’re gonna have a proper meal, because we’ve been so busy all day, and I need food, and we need to feed our daughter. So it’s just become a really, important part of our day, and it’s a really special part of family life.
I think being Irish, we love to have a chat around the dinner table. A cup of tea after dinner never goes amiss!
Oh, absolutely. Last night I stayed in my parents’ house with Nancy, and it was just so lovely. Everything revolves around the kitchen table in Irish households, it is the heart of the house, and it’s always the warmest room. There’s nothing more delicious than having a home-cooked meal. But I can be quite busy, and sometimes I just can’t be organised enough to go do the big shop and have enough kind of ideas for 10 dinners or five dinners. So the ready-made meals are spot on, like you feel like such a legend dishing it off! I’m like, “Look at this fabulous meal I’ve just prepared”, even though all the heavy lifting has been taken out of the equation for you, which is amazing. I’m all about saving time. And wherever I can save time, I absolutely will.
You’re a busy woman as you said, how are you finding the juggle with baby Nancy, work and finding time for yourself?
Nancy’s been in crèche a couple of days a week now, which is absolutely brilliant because it gives me the kind of headspace and the time to come up with new ideas. I think when you work in an industry like this, it’s all about creativity and setting that time aside so that you can work on new ideas and start putting wheels in motion for new projects. So that’s been incredible. My life is completely different than what it was before, but she’s the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to us. We’re both just completely in love with her. I think everybody knows being a parent is hard work, but it’s also the most rewarding thing. One of the most amazing things about having a child is seeing how the rest of your family also loves her. Everyone is also obsessed with her. It’s really cute.
And going back to work after welcoming Nancy must have been tough
I mean, I didn’t take any time off, really. I was straight back to work nine weeks after she was born. So the juggle has been real for a long time, but now, it’s all good.
She’s getting that bit older now, what is it like seeing her get her own personality?
She’s 15 months old now, so she’ll be a year and a half at Christmas time. She is legging it around. She’s trying to talk. She’s practicing talking if that makes sense. So she’s not really saying words, but every now and then she comes out with a real word. So she’s getting there. She’s a proper little chatterbox. She’s extremely busy. Oh my goodness! She’s got so much to do! She’s got a lot to pack into her day. She loves rooting around in my handbag. She’s such a girly girl. If I’m getting ready for work and has the wardrobe open, she is straight in, pulling out the fur, pulling out the sparkle. She’s trying on the high heels, if I put my makeup on, she’s rooting her out of my makeup bag. She’s so girly. It’s so funny already.
That must be fun!
It’s so kind of heartwarming. I’m like, “Oh my God, you’re just like me”, this is so cute because she’s the image of her dad. She’s getting the girly stuff from me.
She’s the image of Charlie!
Yeah, we don’t need to do a DNA test. Like, it’s pretty accurate. It’s pretty clear who the dad is.
Obviously, apart from being a mam, being on the radio, and presenting the Lotto, you also have your podcast, The Handover. Are we getting a season two?
Yes, yes, yes. And it’s so funny that you’re bringing it up because we’re getting the wheels in motion to do season two. I think Laura [Fox] probably had the busiest year of her life, and me too. Like I had a child and all the juggling work. She’s obviously off doing a million things, and we’ve decided to throw a podcast in the mix, because why not? So we had season one, which was great, and we absolutely loved it, and it was so nice to kind of try our hands on a totally different medium because it is so different to radio and so different to TV. We’re going to get into a studio now for season two because we were recording season one in my house, which was great. We are just chomping up a bit now to get season two underway.
Bláthnaid Treacy Moon is an ambassador for SuperValu’s Dinner Time Well Spent campaign. SuperValu is calling on families across Ireland to reclaim dinnertime by coming together regularly and connecting over a great meal. To reinforce the commitment, SuperValu is leaning into a universal, cross-cultural ritual: lighting a candle on the dinner table and asking people to put away all the gadgets that interfere with the dinnertime conversation.
