Mary Kennedy is truly a legend of Irish telly.
We love catching up with her, especially at the Platinum VIP Style Awards.
We chatted about life after retirement and her friendship with Mary McAleese…
Mary, it’s so lovely to see you! Now you’re a busy woman, of course. How many plates do you have spinning at the minute?
Well, I’m retired but I’m doing bits and pieces and loving it. Loving the podcast I’m doing with Mary McAleese, we’ve just done our second season on it and it’s gone down very well. We’re planning the third season and then going into recording now for Moving West the features programme that I do for TG4, and also enjoying life and enjoying situations like the Platinum VIP Style Awards. I mean it’s just, it’s the nicest evening really in the social calendar and this year, I’m absolutely delighted because I’m bringing my daughter-in-law, Nicola, who wasn’t able to come last year because she was just about to have their first baby. Her and my son have little girl called Hazel, who’s coming up to her first birthday now.
Oh so lovely! You mentioned working with TG4, tell me about your grá for Gaeilge.
Before I ever went to work in television, I was an Irish and French teacher. So, I went to college, I just loved loved loved Irish and so did my sister. My two brothers, not so sure about them, but we just loved it and our mother was great for encouraging us and I just feel it’s such an important part of who we are. Even if we’re speaking in English, sometimes you can kind of get the Irish, the Irishness of the expressions that we use. It’s a beautiful language and it’s very handy when you’re on your holidays and you want to talk about people at the next table.
Mary you are such an icon. You have your podcast with Mary McAleese another icon. You’ve been such an inspiration for so many. Does that ever cross your mind?
Well, I was very conscious when I was teaching, in an all girls teaching in a convent school, that I had a job of work to do and that the most important thing really was that those girls would grow into women that felt good about themselves and that they had done their best and that their best was good enough. I always got the greatest pleasure out of teaching Irish or French to somebody who felt ‘Oh I can’t speak Irish’ or ‘I can’t do that’ and bringing them along because anyone can teach a really clever child. But I suppose from that point of view, I felt very conscious of it and wanted to be a role model for those students in the school. I didn’t think about it so much when I went into television, but I suppose if people like you are saying it, I would like to think that people like me and Mary McAleese, we make younger women feel good about themselves.
Before we let you go, we know you love a walk… Is there anywhere better than Ireland to walk?
Oh absolutely not, I mean staycations we love in the family and, you know we’d go and maybe go to the Aran Islands because my sister lives on the Aran Islands. Sometimes I take a house in the country and people will come and go, but I do like, I love walking, I walk four or five times a week, you know a 5k. I’m also leading a part of the Camino. A walk with youwalk.ie from the 2nd to the 9th of July and you know, that’ll be, I’ll be there at 8 o clock in the morning, banging on the rooms saying ‘get up you have to start walking’.
Check out all our winners at this year’s Platinum VIP Style Awards here. Take a look at the red carpet style here.
