A new baby, a second book and more than a year on RTÉ's Six One News; it’s been a busy time for Caitríona Perry. She chats to Janice Butler about politics, motherhood and dealing with life in the public eye.
Caitríona Perry hasn’t been in an RTÉ dressing room in quite a while and for good reason. Her first baby, a girl, was born in July, so she’s been busy adjusting to her new life outside the newsroom. Like most new mums, she’s learning the joys and struggles of trying to get out of the house with a newborn and a Transit van load of gadgets and gizmos. Getting her hair and make-up done for our photo-shoot is a treat, she says: "a change from the tracksuit", she laughs as she checks her phone to make sure all is okay as her mother is minding the baby.
You’d think Perry already has her hands full, but never one to take too much downtime, the news co-anchor has just published her second book, The Tribe, following her debut, In America. She spent four years in Washington DC (2013-2017), as RTÉ’s correspondent there, before taking up her new role on Six One News
with Keelin Shanley in January 2018. In the US, she covered one of the most eventful periods in recent US history: the election of Donald Trump and all that has followed.
Her first book detailed those events, while this one takes a closer look at the role of Irish Americans in the US political system. Why did she focus on this? "I suppose when I moved back from the US, I was really surprised at the attitudes that people in Ireland had towards Irish America, in contrast to what Irish America is really like in a political sense. Most people here think that Irish Americans are Democrats and that’s absolutely not the case."
"People in Ireland talk about the powerful Irish vote and that's also not the case, although it may have been at one point. For those reasons and others, I felt there was a book that needed to be written, looking at where Irish America is now, as opposed to the glory days of JFK or even Bill Clinton," she says. She started the book last year before she became pregnant, but then had to condense her time for research and interviews in the US due to being unable to fly while pregnant.
"It kind of limited travel a bit, so I ended up bulking everything together. I went over in March for nearly three
weeks and travelled around the US. I had an easier schedule than I would have given myself if I wasn’t pregnant, like proper resting time and not six interviews in one day, but it was still very tiring. I was in New York, Boston, Florida, Texas, Washington DC, so there was quite a lot of travelling." she says. "I’m not that
long back from my old job, so I’ve been conditioned to packing quicker, you know, being able to get through
airport security as quick as possible," she laughs.
She admits that during her time in Washington, being Irish definitely had its benefits, opening doors to her as a journalist. "It’s an incredible asset and not just for me as a journalist. Others who go there for work in business or tech or whatever it might be, soon realise that the network is real and it opens so many doors for you. When people hear your accent, they want to talk to you; about their next door neighbour’s granny who’s Irish. People will take meetings or calls based on the fact that you’re Irish and maybe they have an Irish surname and they feel they can chat to you about it."
There’s been a lot of discussion about Ireland-US relations in the news lately, as Brexit rolls on and on. Making headlines recently was author Bonnie Greer, originally from Chicago, who trended big-time in Ireland after her comments on the BBC’s Question Time about Brexit and the British establishment’s attitudes to Ireland. She also said "If anybody thinks that they’re going to have a trade relationship with the United States
that shafts Ireland, you’ve got another thing coming. People are very serious about Ireland in the United States – don’t mess with it, don’t make it look bad."
Does Caitríona agree with the idea that Ireland has powerful allies in the US government? "You can only take people at their word, but the way the House of Representatives is stacked at the moment, the trade deal would have to get through there before it can actually go to the President to sign as a bill. One of the people
it has to get through is Ritchie Neal, who is a proud Irish American who does mean it when he says there won’t be a deal that hurts Ireland," she says, adding, "It’s interesting to see how Ireland punches above its weight in the US. All those Irish American politicians I spoke to all love the Irish take-over of Capitol Hill on
St Patrick’s Day and they’re surprised by the power we have; it’s something other nations are really jealous of. We get an incredible level of access to American politics, especially on that one day in the year."
One of the stand-out moments during her time in Washington was when Caitríona found herself the topic of news as she reported from the Oval office during a telephone exchange between President Trump and the newly promoted Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, when Trump said in front of the world’s press "She has a nice smile on her face, so I bet she treats you well." Perry admits that Donald Trump definitely makes an impression. "He has his own unique way", she says. "I would have only seen the public persona that he puts out there, but he definitely has a huge personality and he likes attention – he sucks the attention from a room. That’s how he rolls; he’s a larger than life character in every way."
That moment went viral and it made her more much recognisable that she’d like. Caitríona is a private person and she’s protective of that privacy, especially when it comes to her family. When her baby girl was born, she
announced it with a simple picture of a congratulations card on Instagram, with the caption: 'Cailín beag’ and
made the decision not to reveal her name. Her new job as co-anchor on Six One News has obviously made
it harder to go out without being recognised, despite her best attempts at disguising herself, she says. "Even
with no make-up and a baseball cap, someone will shout out, ‘Hiya Caitríona’, but it is lovely to see that
the audience connects with the news in that way. You’re in their house five nights a week, so I guess they do feel you’re part of the family."
Her dream as a girl who wrote a letter to Bryan Dobson looking for a job in the newsroom, was never to be famous, just to report the news; being recognised on the street is a side to the job that she’s still trying to get to grips with. "It’s an unexpected side effect. All I ever wanted to be was a journalist – I never thought for a second about being ‘famous’. I probably naively didn’t connect that if you’re going to be on TV, people are probably going to know who you are – I was just more concerned with bringing the news to people. I didn’t grow up wanting to be famous; it was all about the news. That always came first and still does."
She’s planning on returning to our screens sometime next month, as her maternity leave comes to an end. Is
she looking forward to it or feeling stressed? "Your life is just so different as a mum, so it’s hard to comprehend
how you’ll marry the two, but for me, work, my profession and career are a very big part of who I am. It’s whatever works for each individual, but for me, it’s going to be about getting the balance between the two – answers on a postcard if anyone can help with that!" she laughs.
She and her co-anchor Keelin Shanley were 18 months at the helm of Six One News before Caitríona left to have her baby and she feels they had found their stride at that stage. "We were in a great place before I finished up," she says.
"We had the new set and we really wanted to put our own stamp on things. I think we did that, but you have to do that gradually because it is an institution and the public feel very protective of it, and rightly so." She reveals she hasn't had time to miss work while getting used to her second full-time job as a mum, but stays abreast with everything that’s going on in the world.
"It’s funny, like any new mum will say, you’re very busy and your whole immediate focus on any given day is keeping another human being alive. But there’s so much news at the moment that you do kind of miss being
in the cut and thrust of it. Thankfully, a lot of the US news is on in the middle of the night when I’m up anyway with the baby, so I’m getting it as it happens," she laughs.
She’d love to write more books, when she has time and maybe a novel, although she’s not revealing any ideas. A kid’s book? I suggest. "Maybe, now that I’m reading so many of them," she smiles. She’s obsessed with Twitter, although she admits she’s trying to limit the time she’s on her phone now she’s had the baby. "I’m trying to detach myself, but it’s hard," she says. She’s relatively new to Instagam, but it’s purely for work you won’t see a picture of her dinner on her social media feed. "I can proudly say I’ve never posted a plate of food, I prefer to eat it." She does get negative comments from online trolls, but she’s learned to deal with them.
"They can upset you, but I’d have a thick skin anyway as a journalist, so you just have to learn to ignore those people," she says. "I just have to think would that person come up and say that to me in the street, and they wouldn’t, so if someone wants to say something to my face, that’s fine and I’ll give them a fair hearing, but if they’re going to sit behind an anonymous name somewhere on a keyboard, they don’t deserve my thought or reply."
As our conversation comes to an end, there’s one more quick check of the phone; all is still okay. Caitríona
gathers her things and heads down the hallway she’ll be frequenting again very soon. Will she be nervous
on that first evening back? "No, not nervous," she pauses. "It’s more that I won’t be wearing a tracksuit and
runners anymore. I’ll have to get back into high heels."
