How agreeable are you?
I’m probably a bit too agreeable. I’m a bit of a people pleaser. I bow down to authority and I always want people to be happy with me. I’m trying to learn to not be so agreeable, because it’s to my detriment, really. As women I feel we’re all so conditioned to say yes and to make people happy. We were surrounded by that our whole lives – little girls are well-behaved.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
My middle name is Emily, named after my grandmother, my dad’s mam. And I love it. It’s the only English language name in my name. My granny was such a wonderful, warm, caring woman that I’m delighted to have a piece of her as part of my official title.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
There’s a beach on the Dingle peninsula in Kerry. It’s called Trá an Clochar and when you’re looking out you can see An Fear Marbh, the Sleeping Giant island, and it’s just the most peaceful, gorgeous beach where I have felt a higher presence again and again every time I go there. Which is odd, because I wouldn’t normally be attuned to that sort of thing, but it’s so strong on that beach you can’t help but be touched by it.
Describe yourself in three words
Loud. Cautious. Particular.
When did you last get angry?
Just the weekend past. I present Ireland AM at the weekends, and obviously they’re early mornings on a Saturday and Sunday. I woke up a little bit late on Saturday. I had to wash my hair. And then I arrived at the studio later than I would have liked. It wasn’t obscenely late, but I’m a very punctual person and there’s a red river of fury that runs through me at any bit of lateness. I was trying to get everything organised in my bag and my bag got stuck on the handbrake. And I could have gone through the roof. It’s those inconveniences when you’re late. I can’t explain the fury that I feel when I’m delayed and it’s probably always my own fault. I probably need to work on that. I can’t abide the idea of being late to something. I break out in a sweat. It’s actually debilitating.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
It’s going to be quite clichéd, but time with loved ones who have passed. It would be my grandparents. I’ve lost three of my grandparents. My mamó is still around, which I’m very grateful for, and I try to spend as much time with her as I can. But you’re always going to regret not having spent more time with the people you’ve lost.
What’s your strongest childhood memory?
It’s probably interacting with my sisters. I have two sisters. One of them is only 16 months older than me. Probably just laughing with my older sister. Uncontrollable laughing, and being given out to for not eating our dinner because we were just laughing so much. That’s really strong for me, just the divilment we got up to in everyday situations, at home in the comfort of our kitchen.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order, and has this defined you?
Oh, massively. I’m a middle child that is middle child through and through. The middle child is meant to be attention-seeking and a performer. And look at my career: I’m a dancing monkey. I’m between two girls. Growing up in a house of girls, I looked at boys as aliens, because I didn’t have that up close and personal, familial relationship with them. Whereas I thought all the girls who had brothers kind of rolled their eyes at boys. I was a little bit more enamoured of this exotic opposite sex.
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I have not much faith in anything happening once I die. I imagine it’s like when you go to sleep and you’re just not really aware of anything. You’re just not conscious, unfortunately. But that doesn’t scare me. I don’t find that daunting because I just believe that you’re not there to even find it daunting. I don’t believe in an afterlife. I can appreciate that it’s comforting to people who do believe that, and I would never disregard anyone else’s beliefs, but for me personally it doesn’t provide me with a whole amount of comfort and I’m okay with that. We would have been Mass-attenders every Sunday growing up. And I couldn’t draw a definite line of when I stopped believing. I remember being in my teens, around 15 or 16, and explaining it to my friend who had a big fear of death and saying, “but there’s nothing to be afraid of, because it’s just blackness, it’s just darkness, and then you’re just not there.” And she couldn’t get her head around it.
When were you happiest?
I’m only back from my honeymoon, just over a month, and if I could zap myself anywhere it would be back to a tropical island in Thailand, I have to say. Honeymoon stage, literal, physical honeymoon on a tropical island in southeast Asia, I mean you can’t really beat it. That’s been the pinnacle as of late. The wedding day before it was good as well.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
I’m going to suggest ones that I’ve been told. I have never thought about it myself, but I’ve been told, and I’m completely flattered by it, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel. Do you know what, anyone by the name of Jessica I think I’d be happy with. Jessica Biel was in that really good, twisted series on Netflix [The Sinner], and she produced that as well, because she’s obviously extremely talented. I love really diving into things that are written, produced and directed by women. She’s a triple threat, so I’ll take that.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
I would be quite comfortable in saying that I don’t really have any career regrets as of yet, because of being extremely agreeable. Personal regrets? In my much more recent, mature years, I’ve become a bit more sober-curious. And I wish I’d done that younger, or at least had a better relationship with alcohol. I just feel like I was too relaxed with it. It’s probably the same story for a lot of people in this country, but I don’t think it should be as accepted as it is. I wouldn’t say I’m totally off it, just more sober-curious. I do more nights out without taking a drink at all. And I’m okay with going on nights out without drinking.
Have you any psychological quirks?
I’m a divil for visual noise. If the place is messy I can’t sit still. But I don’t need to take everything out of the room, I just need it to be aligned. So, if there’s a few things on a table, I need their sides to be parallel to each other so that it looks neat, and my eyes are drawn to the straight lines.
In conversation with Jen Hogan
