We’ll be seeing a lot more of Síomha Ní Ruairc are our screens.
She started her career in TG4 and has been popping up on Virgin Media more and more in recent months.
The Gaeilgoir stepped into the hot seat in Ireland AM over the summer when Muireann O’Connell was on holidays. And now she will be one of the hosts of dating show Grá ar an Trá.
VIP Magazine caught up with her at the launch of the Virgin Media Autumn/Winter schedule…
Hey Síomha, how are you?
I’m good. This is incredible, I’m delighted to be at the launch!
Tell us a bit about Grá ar an Trá and putting Gaeilge in the spotlight.
My whole thing about the Irish language is that it should be normalised. I throw in a few words when I’m chatting to anyone, whether they’re fluent or if they have no Irish at all! I think it’s just a normal thing to interact with the language in a daily way. You have to make it not unusual. I think it’s amazing that Virgin Media has an Irish language show. It shows that it’s not a separate entity, it should just be included. It represents a massive amount of people in the population, there are 2 million people in this country with some level of Irish. They want to be represented on a national channel.
What was it like to be a Bean an Tí?
I keep telling people that it was the best 10 days of my life. It was very full on, very long days. I was getting up very early, getting my makeup done. But it was so fun! The crew was amazing and the cast was incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more attractive cast on reality TV! I took my duties of Bean an Tí very seriously. If they put a toe out of line I whipped them back in. No, it was really very fun! They’re a little bit older than the usual Gaeltacht clientele so they listened very well.
You stepped into Ireland AM as well this summer. What was that like?
It was definitely challenging! It was a new challenge, I’ve never done live TV before. You can’t reset or reshoot anything. And you have to become an expert on what you’re talking about for seven minutes. But you can’t get too bogged down on it because you have to move onto the next topic. I really enjoyed it, I loved being able to chat to people and sink my teeth into meatier topics. But that’s challenging as well. You have to keep up to date with all the latest news.
Will we see you back soon?
I’m back in this Friday and I have a few more days over the next month. So hopefully you’ll see a bit more of me on the couch.
You started off on TG4 what was it like to do telly as Bearla?
Ireland AM was my first time doing auto-cue in English! I’d only ever done it in Irish before that!
Grá ar an Trá will hit Virgin Media later this year.
