We sat down with Mary Kennedy for a quick catch up…
Mary, how are you keeping?
I’m really good, thanks! It’s been busy at the moment, but in a good way, with holidays, putting the finishing touches on my book which will be published in October by Hachette, and then Moving West has started to air and the reaction has been incredible. It grows every year, and it’s wonderful. The support from everyone has been lovely and very uplifting. I’ve also had two new grandchildren arrive recently, one of them is three months old, little Max, he was born in March, and Calla is two weeks old. I’ve seven grandchildren altogether now and they’re an absolute joy.
You must absolutely dote on them!
Oh yes! The eldest now, Paddy, he lives in Limerick and he came up for his first solo weekend recently. I took the train down to Limerick because I can with the free travel, picked him up after school and we came to Dublin. We did the Viking Splash and enjoyed being tourists in Dublin. He absolutely loved it. It was great.
That’s all keeping you busy, but tell us, when you get a minute of downtime, what’s the first thing you do?
I love gardening. My garden is very special to me. I love roses in particular and won’t have a rose in my garden that doesn’t have a fragrance. I’ve also today organised three gatherings for people to come to my house. When you’re working and writing, it’s so hard to get your head around socialising so now I feel free as a bird and organised a few fun things and some trips. I’m off to the South of France soon with my daughter and I’m leading a trip for the Portuguese Camino at the start of July with uwalk.ie. I led a group on the Camino last year and this time we’re doing a new route. It’ll be lovely.
Do you love those sort of adventures?
I love it, I just love it. I love travelling, love the sun and love walking. All the boxes are ticked!
Are you good at switching off?
I’m much better than I was. My kids always told me it was ok to sit down and read a book in the afternoon, whereas I would have felt like I’d have to do something, sweep the garden or clean something, but now I don’t. That comes with the age I’m at, which is something that’s discussed in my book. This stage of life is a gift. I have my health and people that I love around me, and I’m going to make the most of all the time I have with them! I used to be so busy, but now, no. I don’t make apologies for switching off now.
What are you watching on telly right now?
The False Prophet. It’s a series and I binged four episodes in one night. It’s quite worrying. It’s about an ultra-Mormon community in the desert in the US. That came just after I had just finished reading Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein book, it’s just awful the way women have been preyed upon. I watched Broadchurch recently as well, all three seasons of it. I love Olivia Coleman, and David Tennant is brilliant in it too.
What are you reading?
Secrets Between Friends by Sheila O’Flanagan and Hungry by Katriona O’Sullivan. Miriam O’Callaghan’s memoir is another. I read it just before I began writing my own and it gave me an energy and self belief that I drew on during my own process. I’m about to embark on Land, Maggie O’Farrell’s new book next.
Are you listening to anything in particular at the moment? Are you into podcasts?
Oh I love them! I’m not a good sleeper and after reading in bed, I tend to turn off the lights and put on a podcast. I look on it as a win if I don’t know what happens at the end, which might be terribly insulting to the podcast people! I love The Rest is Politics US, Hugh Linehan’s one Inside Politics, that’s amazing. Julia Dreyfus’ podcast Wiser Than Me is brilliant too. She speaks to women like Jane Fonda, women I adore, about life and what they’ve learned.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
I love very fresh white bread with Tayto crisps! I love champagne too, but don’t consider that a guilty pleasure, it’s a legitimate one.
Tell us, what are you most thankful for in life?
My family. I’m thankful for the family I was born into, the grassroots and no-nonsense upbringing that myself and my siblings had. Life is about the people you come across. I love my own children, their partners and my grandchildren. My friends are also really, really important to me. I’m grateful for my health and a sense of humour because my goodness you’d need it!
What’s your standout childhood memory?
I loved the fact that every summer, my family, my aunts and uncles would always go off on holidays together to quite rural parts of Ireland, always by the sea. We started off in Skerries and Rush, and when we were a bit older we moved to the West and went to Mayo, Spiddle, Connemara the likes. Those are my standout memories. Travelling the country was great. Moving West is a perfect fit and mimics that now, because it’s about people who’ve decided to forgo the bright lights of the city and enjoy a different, simple life, with a very important sense of community.
What’s your most treasured possession?
A letter from my father. He died from a heart attack in 1977, he was playing golf and I was in France teaching English at the time. He always wrote me letters, I’d reply and he’d write back. He never failed to send it. He died at the end of March and I came home for the funeral, when I went back, there was a letter waiting for me from him which he had sent just before passing. I treasure it. I have it in a little folder, it’s very special to me.
What’s been your proudest personal moment in life so far?
Raising four children in sometimes difficult circumstances. I separated, but wasn’t a single mom, they were co-parented very much so. Rearing them, you do your best and hope they’ll turn out well, but my goodness I’m so proud of the people they’ve become. They’ve such sound values. I love them so much and the lives they’re giving to my grandchildren, the next generation.
What about professionally?
I’m very proud of having handled the Eurovison on my own without a co-presenter, having covered the funeral of Mother Teresa in Culcutta, too, that was a five-and-a-half-hour broadcast and since I’ve been back and forth a lot. There’s been lots of big occasions, state funerals, days of commemoration, and I feel very proud and honoured to have been chosen and entrusted to do those things.
What are your hopes for the future?
I’m looking forward to the book coming out, to lots more travelling and we’re hoping to do season five of Moving West so we’ll be filming that later in the summer. And I want to have loads of fun in the middle!
Tune into Moving West on TG4, Tuesdays at 7.30pm and keep your eyes peeled for updates on Mary’s book.
