Jacqui Hurley doesn’t see herself as a role model.
Speaking to VIP Magazine, she tells us: “I’ve never been particularly comfortable with the role model idea, because I guess you don’t see yourself like that, you’re just ploughing your own thing.
“But if I can help other people, I’ve definitely always tried to do that as well.”
Jacqui is the face of Irish sports presenting and we couldn’t imagine a world where she wasn’t talking us through the Six Nations.
She first joined RTÉ in 2006 and has been a staple in sports broadcasting since.
She admits: “I didn’t know I was the first woman to present Sunday Sport. Someone had to point it out to me.
“I was more worried about being the youngest presenter and making a hames of it. I went from presenting four-minute Sports bullets to presenting a four-hour live radio program.”
She went on to say that despite not seeing herself as a role model, she definitely has inspired the next generation into the world of sports. Not just young women, she shares.
“Now, I see it the most in the emails I get from students. Young women will say to me, ‘I’d really love to do what you do, how do I get in?’,” she explains.
“That’s when you notice the real change is coming. Ten years ago, I might have gotten three emails. Now I get a hundred, which is amazing.
“I get so many emails from young lads as well, and that’s a good thing, because it means that it’s not just young women looking up to you. Lads say to me, ‘I’d love to anchor the rugby, how do I do that?’.
“And that’s lovely as well because it just shows how far we’ve come, that young lads will have just as many questions to ask me.”
Reflecting on the start of her career, she admits that it was a very different time as there wasn’t as many female commentators in the world of sports.
“When I started presenting Sunday Sports back in 2009, I do remember getting texts into the radio from people saying, ‘Get that stupid woman off the radio’. But you can kind of almost just block that out and sort of understand that there was just a shift in the mindset. At that point, people just weren’t used to women being on the radio,” she admits.
“It’s obviously a lot different now, but back then, it was just a culture shift. So I just took it. It was somebody else adapting to me as opposed to having a crisis of confidence of my own.”
Now she tells us that she doesn’t have “a strong social media presence,” so she doesn’t see if there continues to be negative comments about her presenting. Which we all have to agree is for the best.
“There’s lots more female reporters, and it’s probably not just really a big thing anymore,” she adds with a smile.
England v Ireland in The Six Nations airs from 1pm this Saturday on RTÉ 2 and RTÉ Player.
