Claire Byrne has had quite an eventful year. As an "early adopter" of Covid-19 (she was diagnosed on March 16th), she admits she experiences symptoms that she never had before – among them "brain fog".
“I didn’t feel sick enough not to be broadcasting,” Byrne recalls, speaking with Róisín Ingle on The Irish Times Women’s Podcast Big Night In on Saturday.
“I was walking around and felt fine – I think I just have that work ethic, wherever that came from. I was able to look after my children and homeschool them, although that’s a whole other story, but I definitely felt well enough to broadcast.”
However, it was “not a pleasant experience and not one I would like to repeat”, she added.
“When I hear people have been diagnosed positive, I just feel so desperately sorry for them, because there’s the initial illness which is probably about two weeks. But then there’s all the other stuff that comes afterwards . . .
“I still have allergies . . . Antihistamines are my best friend. I keep them on the front seat of my car because I can’t broadcast when I’m clogged up. That was never there before.”
And sometimes, she jokes, she gets “brain fog”. “But actually, that’s probably just tiredness or, you know, not doing your homework or whatever.”
Byrne soon moved from her "Covid shed" in the garden of her Dublin home to RTÉ Radio 1's flagship show, Today, taking over from Sean O'Rourke. Byrne's first interview was with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
“That was good in a way as it took the pressure off a little bit,” Byrne recalled. “I had something I could completely zone in and focus on. I mean, it’s a monstrous show – it’s huge. It’s the most fun show I’ve ever done, and I absolutely love it, but it’s hard work. Sometimes I’m walking down the studio in RTÉ at ten to ten, and I have nine briefs that I just hope I’ve read. I thought I’d be going in on the 24th of August and nothing would be happening – well, we haven’t had a quiet week since.
“I’m just a nosy person,” reasons Byrne, referring to her love of reporting. “People come up to work to me and say, ‘Oh, you know the gossip’. I love being the first person to tell people news. I’ve always been like that.”
In the hour-long conversation, Byrne spoke about her path to journalism, which started as a youngster growing up in Laois, when she stayed up late to watch Today Tonight as a treat.
“As a child I was just trying to stay up past half-nine,” she laughs. “All you had to do was nestle in and be really, really quiet, and you’d get away with it.”
A teacher, Mary Holden, encouraged her to write to newspapers with her debate topics, The Irish Times included.
“I’m sure the Tribune were like, ‘Why is this child writing to us about Ethiopian famines?, but Mary was trying to get me bitten by a bug – just seeing your name in print and knowing that’s possible.”
A stint in UCD later, and Byrne decided that Jersey was the place for her. “I told my parents I had a return ticket and that I’d saved loads of money, but I had a one-way ticket and £100. Imagine! I don’t know what would happen if my daughter tried that, but I’d say my mother no more believed me, all the lies I told her. We had no job, no contacts, nothing.”
Yet within a few short years, Byrne was working within BBC Jersey. Eventually, she arrived home to work at TV3, then a year old.
“I’ll be honest with you, we were the shiny girls and I loved the glamour,” Byrne reflects. “The hair was blow-dried, the make-up was done, and they made sure you had nice clothes. I loved it.”
In time, Byrne became less enamoured of the lack of privacy that came with being one of TV3’s “shiny girls”.
“I think I was incredible naïve, but I’d go [to journalists], ‘Oh, you want to know my entire life story? There you go’. I soon realised I should have been a bit more nuanced in my view there.
“[My first marriage ending] was the first time something went wrong in my life when I was on the public stage,” he added. “There was a lot of information about the place about me. And whose fault was that? Mine.”
Talking about feminism, Byrne then mentions that she and her daughter Jane had been clothes shopping earlier in the day. “She looked at an item and I said, ‘I think that’s what the boys wear’, and she said ‘Anyone can wear anything’, and I was like, ‘Yessss! I’ve done this the right way’.”
The Big Night In, sponsored by Green & Blacks, is a series of six live events hosted by Róisín Ingle in conversation with “inspiring, entertaining women”. They take place on Saturday nights from 7 to 8pm every fortnight until December 12th.
The next event, on November 28th, is with former State pathologist Marie Cassidy. A single ticket for all events costs €50, or the special price of €25 for Irish Times digital subscribers. To purchase tickets and find out more, go to irishtimes.com/big-night-in.
Claire Byrne received no fee for this event, instead The Irish Times made a donation on her behalf to Daisy House Association - Helping the Homeless.
