There is a charge of energy as the Ireland AM co-host Muireann O’Connell enters The Wilder Townhouse, just off the leafy walkways of Dublin’s Grand Canal, a stone’s throw from her rented home in Dublin’s Harolds Cross and from her new home, which she’ll soon be moving into.
Muireann is a striking woman – tall, (newly) blonde and dressed in a grey jersey co-ord, Sony noise-cancelling headphones around her neck with a well-worn metallic Peelo bag slung easily over one shoulder. Her energy is nothing like the sleepy canal we have her posing
beside today – no, Muireann’s energy peels off her like laughter does – she is literally a hoot, is mad for the chat, is deeply curious, keenly observant and great company. She’s also very thoughtful and today has come bearing gifts, a thanks to VIP (and to those who voted) for her recent Most Stylish Woman in Ireland win.
For our most stylish lady, our stylist today Eoin Gavin has curated a rail of clothes which has everyone swooning. But the outfit that Muireann loves most is a lemon dress so pale it makes us think about meringues.
But, meringues, readers, make us think about weddings. And weddings make us think about Muireann and how she told us when we last shot her two years ago that there was no point in her having a wedding when she had no house to go back to! But she has the house now – we jest!
When not deftly deflecting our nosey-ass questions we talk about boxing clever for the big move to her new home, how she still believes she has won the job lotto, how her fiancé is the kindest person she has ever met and why she thinks she is the most embarrassing human on the planet!
Muireann, you spend four days a week in front of tv cameras, but getting these shots done today in front of our stills camera, you found excruciatingly mortifying, why was it so embarrassing?
I hate having my picture taken! From a very superficial level I don’t like how I look in photos. I’m like, ‘Who is that person?’ It makes me want to run away and hide!
Do you not see the person you know yourself to be?
No, I don’t! And I just find it so embarrassing. I find myself so embarrassing!
The last time we photographed you was two years ago, and you told us then that to pick up the courage to read your own interview after, required wine!
Well, I did read it! Can’t remember if I had wine or not! But I think I read it when the issue was off the shelf and the new issue was on! I just don’t find myself interesting, I think I’m the most boring person on the planet! I love learning about other people and hearing their stories. Anyone is more interesting than yourself!
Dito, which is why we like hearing and learning about you! You are, as we said in the intro, deeply curious and keenly observant, you are very interested in other people, which makes you a perfect fit for your job.
I think other peoples’ lives are so fascinating, also because you never know what is actually going on until they decide to share, and even if it is mundane to them, it’s alien to me, and a new perspective I just love. Genuinely it’s all about the human experience. At the moment we’re talking a lot about isolation, and Ireland, as we know, is the loneliest country in Europe – that makes me sad. So, if I have the opportunity to chat to someone, I love it, I love the connection.
Well, you may not like being in front of the camera, but you look good in front of it! And we love the hair. Grey blending you say?
Grey blending because I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was going to the hairdressers every nine days, and it was just not maintainable. My scalp was also coming off my head! If I’d been stopped at a Garda checkpoint they would have been like, “Have you cocaine in your car?”, there was so much dandruff on my shoulders. So, my hairdresser Norma Jean who was sick of seeing me every nine days, suggested we do grey blending, which we did and I’m loving. I still put enough chemicals in my hair to trouble Sellafield though!
You say you started going grey when you were 15 years old. Did it bother you then?
I think when you go grey so young it just is what it is, and you get used to it, and I’m used to it now, to the expense and the upkeep – I mean I have been box-dying my head since I was 12! But if I started to go grey now it would be different. Some of my friends are going grey now and they’re like, ‘What the hell?’, because it feels like your body is changing, whereas my body has been breaking down since I was 15! It’s taken a while for the whole, ‘You’re 40’ thing to kick in and now that it’s kicked in, I’m very happy.
Last time we spoke to you, you were giving out about yourself, saying you’d turned 40 but reached no adult milestones, you were a renter, you’d no pets, no hobbies, no real ties. Two years later and look at ya! A house owner!
I am currently walking barefoot on my floorboards; it’s the nicest walk I’ve ever taken in my life! Look listen, it’s a housing crisis and that is not lost on me, but for someone who has a good job I’ve been very bad at this house business and the disappointment of going sale agreed on a house and losing out has been real. I think during that time, personally for me, the old adage, ‘What’s for you won’t pass you by’ was said a lot, and every time I heard it, I wanted to stick pins in my eyes! I was like, ‘Surely lads, there has to be something for me out there’. Now it just feels like this is where I was meant to be. I’m delighted.
Currently you’re boxing up the rental, how’s that going?
I’m actually quite disgusted by myself, at my flagrant buying. Like one day I found five of basically the same jumper! It’s kind of given me a different mindset, because I just don’t want to bring any clutter into the new house, like why do I have a wristband from a gig I went to 15 years ago?!
But clutter just builds and then you kind of get used to stuff that once bothered you. Like the tiles in your new bathroom for example which are bothering you now because you think they’re too dark, they won’t be bothering you in six months’ time. Stuff becomes part of the fabric of you.
That’s so interesting. All I’m concentrating on at the moment is quite literally tiles, my life has become tiles! But you’re so right, have I ever looked at the tiles in the bathroom I’m currently in? No!
Are you finding the house move stressful or cathartic then?
I’m a procrastinator and I leave everything until the last minute, but we had a deadline to fix a few things last week in the rental, so we got a bit ahead of ourselves, which is great. So, the clearing out is happening, but I’m bringing all my books and that’s our issue! He’s like, ‘You don’t need all the books!’ But all the books are coming! I don’t care if all my clothes don’t make it, the books are moving in!
And how is the stress of moving affecting your insomnia? Are you lying awake at night thinking about boxing?
No! It’s making me calmer knowing I’m moving towards something that I’ve wanted and worked for, for a very long time. It’s also a place I feel genuinely very happy in, it’s lovely, it’s chill.
Was part of the insomnia you previously told us about related to the lack of ‘milestones’ you felt you weren’t reaching then?
When I turned 40, I went, ‘What are you doing? What have you done? What is the point?’. I was thinking about my dad at the time and everything he had done – he was a very social man, he was always out, he had a big circle, he was always doing things for charity. So that was on my mind about age…. but the insomnia… maybe it was the grey hair at 15?! But I haven’t been able to sleep since then! My mother will say I haven’t slept a day in my life!
How many hours a night do you get?
If I was left to my own devices during the first year of Ireland AM, if I was getting three to four hours, I was lucky. By the end of that year, I knew something had to change, it was a lot. But nowadays I do all the herbals, all the magnesium, all that stuff. I’m full of the earth by the time I go to bed at night!
Now, you told us last time we spoke that there was no point in having a wedding if you had no house to go back to! But you have the house now!
[laughing] I did say that! But I’m not in the house yet! [she winks, tongue firmly in cheek] We signed the contracts for this house and the enquiries came thickand fast! It’s like after you get married you get the whole, ‘When’s the baby due?’ question!
You know the way you said before you’re not a joiner, that you hate to be forced to do anything, is the wedding pressure a bit of the same?
I feel like a teenager a lot of the time because if someone tells me to do something, I’ll want to do the opposite! I’m curious when am I going to grow out of this! [thinking] A lot of people were telling me you have to go with massive tiles in the bathroom and that made me want to go even smaller with the tiles! But as for the wedding, it’s a lot, isn’t it? A lot of attention and a lot of pressure and I hate that!
We know you are notoriously private about the “housemate” but we asked you before to tell us one thing about him and you told us, “He has good trainers”. Tell us something else now!
Did I say that about the love of my life?! [laughing] That’s terrible!
It’s not terrible, it’s funny. Is the housemate good at DIY even?
He’s very handy. Actually, he’s excellent at DIY. He also has the kindest eyes of anyone I have ever met in my life. I love his eyes. He is the kindest human being. He’d do anything for anyone.
What a lovely thing to say. So, Muireann, you’re off air about an hour. How do you feel in the minutes after the show finishes?
You can’t remember what’s after happening! We go into a debrief meeting and it’s all a blur! You feel like you’ve done a workout session and it’s still only 10 o’clock. And your brain is very tired, because you are changing topics every 12 minutes. But then we start planning the next day, and on it goes! But it’s a real collective experience, some days you’ll be like, ‘I was no good today, I didn’t know how to do my job’, but you have everyone else there to cover you. That is really nice.
It never looks like you’re having a bad day. It always looks like you’re on it.
Definitely not! But honestly, that’s the beauty of a team. When you’re having an off day that’s when the boys [Alan Hughes and Tommy Bowe] come in and the producers and the researchers, the floor managers and the camera crew. I love that about it, that if I don’t have it, someone else does.
Do you thrive on that frenetic energy that live tv brings?
Yes, I absolutely love it. That whole thing of not knowing what’s going to happen, I think everyone needs a bit of that in their day, whether you’re a teacher or a musician or you work in a shop, things not being routine really suits a lot of people and it suits me. I also love the huge variety, that is never going to get old for me.
Being on that couch has broaden your mind you say, prevented your life from being myopic.
It has, it makes you see things in a different way, just from talking to people. I find my mind is constantly being changed about things, which I love because I don’t want to be stuck in one mindset. And it’s the people I get to chat to that do that.
Live tv also really forces you to be in the present, and so does a great job at preventing overthinking.
Well, sometimes I could give a little bit more thought to the things that come out of my mouth! [laughing] We are so well produced by a crack team, but that said once the camera goes on, they don’t know what we are going to say or do!
How long are you on the Ireland AM couch now?
It’s coming up on four years this September.
Four years of winning the job lottery!
I really do feel so lucky. For as long as they want me it’s truly a privilege, I absolutely love it.
Talking about jobs, who do you think should get the Liveline gig?
I want someone to get the job who cares why Mary’s upset about her shopping trolley having a wonky wheel – that’s the best radio! The glory of Liveline is that nothing is too small and nothing is too big. It has to be someone who cares about people living in this country, even if it’s not headline grabbing stories. Because when Mary’s shopping trolley isn’t working for her, that has made a difference to her day. Whoever wants that gig should get it, there are some amazing broadcasters out there and I’m really looking forward to seeing who they pick.
Us too!
It is going to be exciting, because Joe is such an institution, but Marian Finucane was before him. It was all, ‘How is Joe going to get on?’ when he took over from Marian. There is a period of adjustment, no more than when I started on Ireland AM. But also, someone always brings something new. I don’t think Liveline is changing in any shape or form, it’s too part of our fabric.
Tell us, have you holidays planned?
We took a week off for the house and we’ll be going to Kerry with both families also. They get along well, which is so nice. We’ll walk and talk and play cards, not with my mother though because she’s a card shark and thinks we’re all stupid and can’t play! And then we’ll play Wordle and do The New York Times quizzes and get all competitive!
For someone who is competitive, and very bright, are you ambitious, do you want more or are you happy with where you are at?
I wish I had more ambition, I wish I knew how to go out there and get something, I have been incredibly lucky in my life, I really, really have. But I’ve never thought beyond six months and that’s kind of part of the reason why I haven’t reached certain milestones. I don’t have a mood board, or a vision chart and I probably should. Because that narrative we’ve been fed about women for a while, I don’t think it’s there anymore, it’s different now. Now I think anything is possible. An act 2, an act 3 and an act 4 all can happen, there are chapters to open all the time.
Well, we hope this new act in this new house is a very happy chapter.
Me too, thank you!
