Sinead Kennedy talks to the RTÉ Guide about her time working in RTÉ's Young People's Programming, about married life and her ambitions for the future.
"I worked with kids, I worked with animals and I acted like an eejit,” she says of those days learning the art and craft of TV presenting. She’s still full of praise for Young People’s TV, especially as we met the day after
RTÉ announced that it would be outsourced from 2017.
“I feel sorry for those who put their heart and soul into the place,” she posted on social media. “I was one of them for a decade.”
But if children’s TV can make a career, it can also fossilise it: with the public (and some programme-makers) unable to see beyond the kid’s TV presenter persona. “I was nervous about getting out of that pigeonhole,” says Kennedy.
“At 25 or 26, I felt too old to be working in Young People’s and I was like the granny of young people’s programmes for my final two years. I was only 29 when I left, but I felt like I was 100 years old! If ever there was a time in my life when I felt like I needed Botox it was my last two years on Young People’s.”
Next month, she starts a Master’s degree in mental health science. “Why am I interested in mental health?” she says. “I’m just fascinated by how people’s minds work. And you should never judge a book by its cover.”
Read the rest of Sinead's interview in this week's RTÉ Guide, on sale now!
