Ireland AM co-host Anna Daly describes herself as an "accidental broadcaster" but there's nothing else she’d prefer to do now. She talks to Donal O’Donoghue about motherhood, the gender divide and the dangers of social media.
When Simon (Delaney) and I are doing interviews, people will be very quick to ask me two questions that he never gets," says Anna Daly of how she and her Ireland AM co-host are sometimes regarded by the media. "Firstly, they ask me 'How do you juggle work and looking after the kids?’ Now, I have three children but Simon has four. And the second question is about the baby weight and how did I lose it? Yet they never mention Simon’s appearance or his children and how he juggles it all. Isn’t that interesting?"
It is indeed I say, scratching of a few queries of my own, but the irrepressible Daly, champion of working mothers, is smart enough to know the score. "Do what you think is the right thing now so you won’t regret it in years to come," she offers at one point. It could be her motto.
It's mid-term. Anna is at home in Wicklow with her youngest, Rhys (3) while the other two boys, James (8) and Euan (6), are at soccer camp. Hubby Ben is at work. "Mid-term is great craic," says the broadcaster, tongue squarely planted in cheek. "Going to work is a walk in the park in comparison but I reckon most parents would say that."
She laughs, adding that Rhys is going to follow her about the house while she gets some jobs done. It is said more in hope than expectation and sure enough, halfway through this interview, she has to play a cartoon to keep her youngest entertained. I tell her that she’s a nominee for the inaugural RTÉ Guide Celebrity Mother of the Year poll. She seems genuinely chuffed. "We can be blasé about those awards but when you yourself get nominated it is like: 'Oh My God!’"
The effervescent broadcaster (and winner of Woman’s Way Celebrity Mum of the Year 2013) talks about life’s swings and roundabouts and how if you’re being honest, you really can’t have it all. "The other side always
looks better," she says of those greener-looking faraway hills. "So you just do your best."
Her own working week is unusual, beginning on Thursday morning and wrapping on Sunday evening. "By Thursday, I’m more than ready for work as I’ve been mummy for three days," she says. "By then, I’m ready to chat with adults and looking forward to finishing a cup of coffee." Yet inevitably, motherhood, "the most rewarding gig of all", refuses to be boxed away.
"I always wanted to be a mother but I always feared giving birth because I'm such a wimp, so squeamish about blood and needles," she says. "Yet giving birth was the biggest achievement of my life and still is."
Anna Daly grew up in the Dublin suburb of Templeogue: into sport and chit-chat but not really boys (or so she says). "I was oblivious to the usual teenage things to the point that I remember going to this disco when I was
15 and my mum saying to me, 'Would you like to think about a little bit of make-up?’" She laughs – as she does frequently – recalling her teenage self, playing tennis on the street in pig-tails.
"Every school report would have said ‘Capable of much better grades but easily distracted and a bit of a chatterbox’," she says. She is a big fan of her mum, Ann, a role model who went back to work following the birth of Anna and her younger brother David, and tried to wind up her dad, Noel (who worked in the motor trade all his life) by saying she was considering a career as a mechanic.
The Leaving Certificate was followed by a degree in marketing, a year in Australia and then back home to the grindstone. Marketing in Bank of Ireland, then time at radio station, Lite 102 (now Dublin’s Q102) before Anna joined TV3, where she rose to the position of marketing manager. When a producer at the station suggested she should try out in front of camera, she instinctively batted the notion away.
"I remember saying to Ben (then her boyfriend) that it’s a bit vain to want to be on the telly," she says. But Ben convinced her otherwise and so she signed up for a course under the tutelage of well-known TV guru, Bill Keating. In 2009, she made her TV debut, the same year she was nominated as Image magazine’s young businesswoman of the year.
"I always call myself an accidental TV presenter because I never planned it," she says. Alongside the glitz and jollity ("Simon is great fun"), Ireland AM has covered some tough subjects down the years, including domestic violence, mental health issues and most recently, the tragic death of TV presenter, Caroline Flack.
"We have to question the role of social media in that respect," says Anna. "Of course, it is a very useful tool but it also has a power and influence that can be very damaging" Does she worry about how social media might impact on her children? "I absolutely do but hopefully, when my kids get into their teens, things will have changed or maybe it will have gone. But the pressure on young girls, in particular, to look and behave in a particular way is terrible. I was really innocent at that age."
Anna first met Ben through a mutual college friend. At the time, he was dating someone else and she was Australia-bound. Over a year later, both single, they reconnected. In 2007, on a holiday in Cannes, Ben proposed on the beach – on one knee with a ring studded with a diamond from his late mother’s engagement ring. "I knew very early on that Ben was the one," she says. "By the time he proposed, we had already bought a house, and taking out a joint mortgage can be a bigger commitment than marriage!"
Now 13 years and three children later, their work schedules mean they sometimes pass like ships in the night. "But we’ve got better at spending time together and that could be just kicking back and watching TV (their current obsession is season two of Succession)."
Last time we spoke, in the summer of 2017, it was on the eve of Daly’s 40th birthday. Back then she was bubbling with plans. She still is. "I’m always looking for other opportunities," she says. "In that respect, Ireland AM has been an amazing platform for me, taking me to the most incredible places, meeting the most amazing characters."
But talk of being in the TV limelight wheels back to the tragic story of Caroline Flack. "Despite all the positive messages we get about the show, it’s the one mean one that will stay with you," she says. " That’s just human nature. Being on telly means that not everyone will like you, which is why I don’t tend to read too many messages anymore.
But why send negative messages? You don’t have to watch that person if you don’t like them."
