Elle Gordon chats to Claire Byrne about her new TV quiz show, Ireland's Smartest, finding her rhythm and feeling at peace with change.
I meet Claire Byrne in RTÉ, where she has just come off the air from her daily radio show, Today with Claire Byrne. With a current affairs focus and analysis, it is the sort of show most of us associate with the journalist from Co Laois. So, her return to TV with the light entertainment staple, a quiz show, Ireland’s Smartest, is a novel turn.
She says: "For me, this is completely different to anything I have done before. It was like being dropped into another world. That is what it felt like and in a way that is why I wanted to do it. It is a great concept, and it introduces me and viewers to an entirely new world if you are not involved in quizzing. There is a whole swathe of people out there, for whom quizzing is their thing.
"And so, we have found the best of the best and brought them on to compete against each other. The show is very fast moving, very intense but it is good fun as well. I am so excited about it. I think it is going to be great."
A new type of show for Claire, but Ireland’s Smartest marks her return to TV, having decided last summer to step back from Claire Byrne Live.
"Yes, I was taking a bit of a break from television, but I never said I would never do TV again. It’s just that time slot was very demanding in terms of the rest of my schedule. This is very different in that you can record these shows in a block together, so it is not placing a demand on you every single week."
She said at the time she quit Claire Byrne Live that it was because she wanted more time with her children, Patrick (9), Jane (8), and Emma (5).
"Well look, I am gone every morning. I leave the house at 6.50 every morning so I am not there for their going to school bit every day and I think that’s enough really to be able to teach them about the value of work. They know that I work hard. I just think it was a step too far for me not to not be there every single Monday night too. And not to be present in the way that I wanted to be every weekend because I was working weekends in the lead-up to Monday’s show.
"I asked them recently, 'How would you feel if I was working every Monday night?’ and they were all having their dinner and they just said, ‘Noooo!’ I still think it was the right decision, a hard decision, but the right one. It is so much better now. I can’t explain how grateful I am to have that little bit of extra time.
"I am in RTÉ five days a week. It is a very demanding job, but it is manageable now the way I have things set up. I have got to be very careful with that scales all the time and how it is balanced in terms of work life and home life. I am still prepared to take on TV things because I love it, but I have a responsibility to three children under 10 and I must bear that in mind too. It is just about getting that right.
"If I didn’t have my family, I would probably be taking on everything and that is always how it was. I was always up for taking on lots of different things, but I just can’t do that anymore because of the choice that I have made. Other people might make a different choice, but this is how I want to live my life by having enough time for me at home with my children and my husband."
Claire’s father passed away in 2021 at the age of 86 – did that change the way she looks at things?
"I think losing my father changed my perspective certainly. One of the first things that hits you is how short life is, so the time to live your best life as you see it, is now. That was lesson one and then lesson two was questioning how important is it really to keep pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion. Is it not more important to keep enjoying the people around you? The people you love who may not be there next year?
"I think those lessons combined to clarify how I feel about work and home life and all those things. But I was thinking about him around this quiz because this is the first new project that I will have done that he won’t be around to see. That is a bit strange."
Is radio her first love? "I think over the years, if someone asked me what my first love is within my work, I would automatically say radio. Now I question that within myself. I love radio and I have always loved it. I love the intimacy of radio but there is a buzz with television as well that is not quite the same. It is different. I think a bit of both is a healthy mix.
"I suppose I made the decision to take TV out of my life for a time. Radio is my day-to-day, my bread and butter job. I probably would find it very difficult if someone said to me, ‘No you can’t do the radio anymore.’ So maybe that is my answer, it is my first love, but I can’t say that TV is the poor relation or anything. I have a great fondness for TV as well."
Speaking of TV, I have to ask what she thinks of Ryan Tubridy’s recent decision to quit The Late Late Show. Claire says: "I was as surprised as anyone to hear the news of Ryan’s decision but when I interviewed him on the Today radio show I could tell he was very happy with his choice to go now and that really is the most important thing.
"He has given The Late Late Show his heart and soul for 14 years and left an indelible mark on Irish TV history. I’m delighted that he is going to get to do all the things he loves now, and I am excited as anyone to see what it is."
Outside of work, Claire says: "We are a very happy household. My children are a bit more curious about what I do now… sometimes they ask me am I famous and I just say ‘No! No one is famous, it’s a small country.’ Outside of work I feel like I am just a Mammy. But you are never just a Mammy, are you? But a lot of my focus is around what the children are doing and making sure we have enough food in the house. They are just eating all the time. It is constant."
And on the work front? "My radio job is my dream job in many respects, and I feel very comfortable in saying that. I feel like I have a good rhythm of it now. I can pick and choose in terms of television what I want to do, so that’s a really great place to be, to be able to say yes and to be able to say no. I am exactly where I want to be, and I feel like everything is in balance and I know now that I did the right thing."
