"It's different and it’s difficult," says Mary Kennedy of turning 70 in September. But the broadcaster and writer is busier than ever. Donal O’Donoghue meets her at home for a chat and some cake.
"I have had my ups and downs with mental well-being," says the broadcaster and writer, Mary Kennedy. "I struggled when my marriage ended and now it’s got to do with turning 70."
In September, the Dubliner hits that significant milestone and this time it’s different. "I have a much deeper sense of mortality," she says of living and the inevitability that she will some day leave all behind. "Maybe that’s because I have grandchildren now. My first grandchild was born when I was 65 and my fifth arrived some seven weeks ago and I’m thinking, will I be here for Hazel Rose’s 21st birthday? I never thought about such things before but since the beginning of the year, it has become very real. At times, I have struggled."
Yet step back and you see a different picture. Five years after retiring from RTÉ, Kennedy is as busy as ever, with her first appearance at the Electric Picnic next month (a public interview with her fellow Allenwood Conversations podcaster, Mary McAleese), while a new season of Moving West is due on TG4 this autumn. She also writes regular columns for Ireland’s Own and West Cork’s, The Opinion: a mother and grandmother with an accomplished career in broadcasting, often described (not by herself) as "a national treasure" and still delivering in print, on air and online.
We talk of these and other matters, drinking tea and eating freshly baked lemon drizzle cake in Kennedy’s home in south Dublin. "I just threw it all in the machine," says Mary of her creation as I take a bite, feeling somewhat like a judge on a reality TV show (for the record it’s perfect: moist, zesty and with a satisfying crunch in the crust). The following day she’s going west to 'the Island’ (Achill, where her sister Deirdre lives) to spend some time with her daughter, Eva, and her family.
Family is where it’s at for Kennedy; the walls of her home papered with photographs of her four children and five grandchildren as well as framed covers of her many books. I ask how her partner, Tom, is. "He’s great," says Mary of the man she first met on a blind date orchestrated by her friend, Debbie Deegan.
She also has a question for me: "How are things in RTÉ?"
In 1995, Mary Kennedy presented the Eurovision Song Contest from Dublin. At the time, she was on an extended career break from her full-time teaching job (French and Irish), having joined RTÉ as a part-time continuity announcer in 1978.
"It was magical," she says of the Song Contest, "but I don’t think I valued myself then. Maybe I was a bit afraid that I’d get above my station and that kind of came from my mother, who was a big worrier. She was petrified that I’d do something wrong on the night of the Eurovision and I’d be pilloried. Her other worry was that it would be a huge success and I’d get a big head."
So, how’s the big head now Mary? She laughs. "We had to widen all the doors in RTÉ." Whatever about the redesign of Montrose, in the wake of the EVSC, Kenndy quit teaching and became a full-timer at the national broadcaster, and a household name as co-host of Nationwide.
But in 2019, following her 65th birthday, it was time to go. She found the leaving hard but stepping into Dancing with the Stars eased the transition. Subsequently, other doors opened, including two shows for TG4, Moving West (two seasons and counting) and Fad Saoil (Long Life), TV that tapped into her popularity and personality.
Earlier this year, together with her old pal, Mary McAleese (they first met as part of a hiking group, The Camineros), she started co-hosting a podcast, The Allenwood Conversations. "We both have a lot of contacts and anybody we have asked so far has said yes," she says of a line-up that has included her nephew, Dermot Kennedy, Roz Purcell and Phil Coulter. The podcasts are recorded in the Kildare village of Allenwood, the conversations more cosy chats than interrogation and the guests are treated to Tunnock teacakes (Mary Mc has a weakness for them).
Any acts she’d like to catch at her inaugural Electric Picnic? "Kylie Minogue," she says immediately. "Last year, Dermot (Kennedy) played the main stage, but I won’t be staying overnight; straight home afterwards." Once upon a time, Dermot Kennedy was known as Mary Kennedy’s nephew. "When Dermot was starting off and he had just made his first EP, I handed it out to the presenters in RTÉ, hoping that they’d play it but that has long changed now," she says of the globally successful singer-songwriter.
Yet she is determined to stay young at heart, bolstering her mental and physical well-being with regular exercise and counselling. Sea swimming? "Oh no," she says. "Yesterday Deirdre told me to pack my togs for the island but there is no way I’m getting into that cold sea. Now the Mediterranean, that’s a different matter."
Fad Saoil navigated such issues as loneliness, health and ageing for women. Is loneliness an issue for her? She shakes her head. "It was a transitory thing, an adjustment from going to a house full of kids to the empty nest," she says. "When I wasn’t feeling great at the beginning of the year, I didn’t call my friends until later. They asked, ‘Why didn’t you lift the phone?’ but the thing is that when you’re in that moment you just can’t lift the phone. It’s only later, when you’re emerging from the sadness that you find the energy to call people."
For years, she has had counselling. "I’ve continued right through the good times as well as the not so good because I believe we should always examine ourselves and strive to do better. It has proved very helpful and continues to be so. I’ve never come out of a counselling session feeling worse than when I went in."
Her Catholic faith also anchors her. So how did she feel watching the recent Prime Time Investigates documentary about multiple allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Bishop Eamonn Casey?
"I regret that he was dead before these allegations were aired on TV," she says. "People should face justice in this life. I was working in RTÉ in 1979 when Bishop Eamonn Casey welcomed Pope John Paul II to the Youth Mass in Galway, and it was almost like a pop concert. But such revelations don’t affect my faith as in ‘I’m never going to church again’. Years back, people would say to me ‘You’re an á la carte Catholic’ and that’s true: I extract the pieces that work for me and the question I always ask myself is ‘What would Jesus think of that?’"
Does she believe that she will see her parents again in another life? "I don’t know, and I don’t question it," she says. "I still feel their presence though. I feel that the way my parents lived their lives continued through my life and through my children and now my grandchildren too. And when I look in the mirror, I see my mother looking back at me.
"I’m now ten years older than my father when he died at the age of 59 and that was also a wake-up call to value every moment with family and friends. He was playing golf one day and then he was gone. Going to a counsellor means that a lot of my memories are kept alive and that’s nice. Now there was more of a sadness in my mum after dad died and it was more of a financial struggle too. But I don’t believe I’m a worrier like my mother."
Next February, Mary Kennedy will travel to India with her sister. She is also hopeful for a fourth season of Moving West in 2025 ("It’s so like Nationwide and I do like going into other people’s homes."). Moving west was never a consideration for the dyed-in-the-wool Dub, with most of her children based in the city (apart from Eva). "I like popping over to them for a cuppa and a chat," she says, someone who has said that motherhood defines her more than anything.
Yet the many other strings to her bow are also part of the picture. "I’m currently reading Jane Fonda’s Prime Time," she says of a 2011 publication that has stirred thoughts of what her next book might be. "I’m obsessed with her. She’s not only very funny but someone who has lived, and still lives, a full and fruitful life."
