As Celebrity Bainisteoir returns to our screens this week, Gillian Quinn tells Taragh Loughrey-Grant about swapping her Pilates mat for a mucky field full of muckier men.
Reality GAA show, Celebrity Bainisteoir, returns to RTÉ One for a new season this week and among the new crop of managers is Gillian Quinn. The wife of Sunderland Chairman and former Irish international player Niall Quinn, Gillian is excited about getting in on the sporting action for herself.
How did you get involved with Celebrity Bainisteoir?
Gillian Quinn: I’d been asked to do a few other celebrity-type programmes this year. None of them really appealed to me, but because of the sporting aspect of this one, Niall thought I’d love it . . . GAA on Niall’s side is massive; his father and two of his uncles hurled for Tipperary. I thought I’d enjoy doing it too and we were both right, I’ve absolutely loved doing it, it’s been great!
Niall’s sporting achievements ar well known but what is your own sporting background?
I didn’t play any sport as a child, I was more into dancing and that kind of thing but when I got married I started riding horses. I had never ridden until I was 20 and that has become a daily part of my life ever since. I ride horses every day and I compete in dressage.
Niall knows that I have a fierce competitive streak, he’s seen me at competitions. I absolutely love winning and I work extremely hard for that. My mantra is that if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. That’s what I live by and I had such a commitment to winning and I wanted to get that across to the players – that I was as hungry for a win as they were.
Tell us about your team . . .
My team is Ballyporeen in South Tipperary. The place is most famous for Ronald Reagan’s visit in 1984 and it’s been kind of a sleepy town ever since then. The town runs around the GAA club, everyone is involved. It’s such a great community and parish that this programme is perfect for them.
We wanted a team that would want to be part of the show on every level, from the mammies and the grannies, the whole town came out to watch training every time. All the women would bake cakes and make sandwiches for the team and for the crew and they were so involved and welcoming. It’s been a fantastic experience so far.
How did your Celebrity Bainisteoir experience start?
First of all, I was introduced to the team which was the most nerve-wracking thing, that was a couple of months ago when they did the reveal; the team didn’t know who they were getting as a Bainisteoir. They were all locked in their dressing rooms and I drove down and the whole parish was out to see who the Bainisteoir was going to be. I had to literally walk into the dressing room and give them a speech. I had never, ever done anything like that in my life, I was having absolute nightmares and was sick the whole way down in the car!
I did actually freeze at one stage because I was shell-shocked, I hadn’t expected 38 lads to show up, I mean a team is 15 and a few subs! You’re torn with ‘Are they going to be gutted it’s me or because I’m a girl? Were they hoping for someone really, really famous?’ You don’t know what kind of reaction you’re going to get and in fairness to them they were brilliant and I got a great reaction. I had to take them straight onto the pitch and train them for the first training session. I held my hands up straight away and said that I hadn’t a clue about Gaelic football; none of the bainisteoirí has really. Some of them, one or two of the lads had played but I said ‘I know nothing about this but I’m gonna do my best to learn, to help you and make this work.’
When you walked through that door, was the first reaction of those 38 lads a bit of ‘Hell-ohh!’?
Not at all! You know, I think you know you’re getting old when you see lads in their teens and 20s and look at them maternally. I feel like I’ve gained 38 sons and I think it’s because I’m edging towards 40 that’s the way I see guys of that age. Well, one young lad Mikey, he’s the second goalie and he’s 17 – I’ve a daughter who’s 17 – but he was quite funny and a bit cheeky, trying to get a hug and the odd little peck on the cheek.
We are used to seeing you looking glamorous but did you go for a hair scraped back, no make-up look on the pitch?
My hair is definitely scraped back but I have to put a bit of make-up on, I’m nearly 40 for God’s sake, I’d frighten them if I didn’t wear a little bit, but no I wasn’t in my full war paint.
How did you prepare for your training sessions?
Niall’s best friend, David Whelan, who was one of the assistant coaches on the Dublin team, comes over the night before training, goes through all of the drills that I plan to do the next day. So I get Niall and the kids outside in the back garden and we bring out our cones and go through all these drills, just to make sure when I’m faced with 30 odd lads that I know exactly what I’m doing because they’re all standing there, saying ‘tell us what to do’. Because I train people on a daily basis – I’m a Pilates instructor – the actual coaching came naturally to me but I can’t catch a ball to save my life! Also the kids came down to the first match; Mikey did water boy at the match and Aisling came along and supported with all her friends.
I went down when the crew weren’t there to watch them play matches. I went down to watch them train, just to kind of get to know them all and just so they knew I wasn’t just turning up when the cameras were there. It wasn’t so much about the TV programme for me really; it was more of a personal journey. I’m in Naas, so it took about two hours to get down but by the time you have the tea and sandwiches, I wouldn’t be home until 12.30am or one in the morning!
Who would you consider your biggest competition among the other Bainisteoirs?
My match is against Tony Cascarino; his team is Killeshin in county Laois.
This year’s Celebrity Bainisteoirí:
Dana: St Michael's GAA Lissan, Derry
Gillian Quinn: Ballyporeen GAA Club, Tipperary
Paul Gogarty: Oughterard's Seamus Ó Máille GAA Club, Galway
Tony Cascarino: Killeshin GAA Club, Laois
PJ Gallagher: St Patrick's GAA Club Donabate, Dublin
Tommy Fleming: St Patrick's GAA Club Dromard, Sligo
Amanda Brunker: Aughrim GAA Club, Wicklow
Brenda Donoghue: Kilcullen GAA Club, Kildare
What advice did Niall give you?
He told me to be myself, to relax and enjoy it. I got advice from different quarters. The mentor on the programme, Liam Kearns [former Limerick and Laois manager], he kind of made me a little tougher on the discipline. If I was asking someone to do something and they dropped the ball, I might have threatened press-ups but I wouldn’t always have carried it through. He would have pushed me saying, ‘make them to the 20 press-ups’.
I wanted the lads to like me but I also wanted them to respect me, but I didn’t want to be a total b**ch. On the days that he was there, I was forced to be a bit tougher!
Did your previous media experience help you on the show?
I had my own TV show for six months from last May with Kildare TV [The Gillian Quinn Show] and that was on every night. When I first started doing that last May, I was terrified but by the end, it was easy. I packed it in because I had to do all my own research for the show and I just didn’t have the time to do it but I would say without that experience I would have found Bainisteoir very hard . . . Although when it comes to editing and they realise how much I swear, they’ll realise I wasn’t aware of the cameras at all!
What do you think of that controversial GAA-themed ad for crisps?
I think it’s fantastic and the girls, without saying they’re good role models, they’re fit looking girls. I don’t know whether they’re actual sportspeople but they’re not scrawny models; they look like fit, healthy girls.
Are you glad you became a celebrity bainisteoir?
I have friends for life from this programme, they’re fantastic people. Even when the programme is done and dusted I’m going to go down there to teach them Pilates and I’m also doing a fashion show as a fundraiser for the football club.
This has been a life-changing experience for me and I can’t thank the people of Ballyporeen enough. They’ve treated me like royalty while I’ve been down there and they’ve been so kind and friendly and welcoming to me and the crew. I can’t thank the players for the effort they put in, they’ve been great.
Celebrity Bainisteoir, Sunday, RTÉ One
