Since her earliest days on pirate radio, broadcaster Anne Cassin has brought her natural desire to listen to people's stories to what she does. She chats to Claire O’Mahony about the life-long richness that curiosity has given her, the natural evolution of family life and keeping her dancing shoes after Dancing With the Stars.
Anne Cassin has spent a career asking questions, but what becomes clear very quickly in conversation with her is that her skills also encompass listening to the answers. She is patient and curious about people, traits that have sharpened over time.
"I’m good at listening. Not everybody might agree, but you know, I can listen. I do listen to people when they talk to me, and a lot of the time in this job, you’re drawing people out, you’re getting them to share their stories," she says. "I wouldn’t have had that kind of reflection in my earlier years. I’ve become more attuned to it now. Listening is active."
She is a familiar face to many, thanks to Nationwide, which she has been presenting since 2012, alongside Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh.
When we meet, she is typically stylish in double denim with a neck scarf. "I absolutely love clothes. I’m interested in style rather than fashion per se, because I think it’s a way that you can express yourself," she says. "For me, colour and what I wear is how I actually face the world."
Anne’s career to date has spanned different roles, beginning in pirate radio after she studied communications at the old Rathmines College. She joined RTÉ as a continuity announcer and later moved into sport, news and current affairs.
She explains that there was no single point when she felt she had arrived. "I don’t think it’s moments really. I think you sort of evolve. When you’re writing your story, you look back and say, well then, it was all a trajectory, but actually it’s a lot more haphazard than that. I started out in Radio Nova [the pirate station] writing scripts, and that quickly progressed to thinking, well, I prefer to be on the air rather than behind the scene sand really, that was the start of that particular phase. I think we call it a 'journey’ now.
"I did sport for a long time, and then I moved from sport into news casting. News casting was really good and solid while I had small children, and then I moved into a programme called Capital D. I think when I hit Capital D and Crimecall [which she presented for five years] and then Nationwide; those were the key career points that I felt most settled in because I’m happier being a presenter."
That distinction is at the centre of how she talks about her work now: "I feel in my heart and soul I’m more a features person than a hard news person. I think it’s a better use of my skills." Her work on Nationwide reflects this, covering as it does a broad remit of community, heritage and people.
"I see myself as a generalist, and I think that’s a strength. While I don’t have in-depth expert knowledge about different fields. I know a bit about heritage, I know a little bit about biodiversity, and then there’s always personal stories that will just grip you. I think that is a massive strength that you don’t necessarily know what’s coming. It could be a crafter, or it could be a history piece, or a fashion designer."
Long days on the road are the backbone of her weeks and she has a routine. "There are flows to the year. You’ll do more filming in summer because you’ve got more light," she explains. "I pack too many clothes. I bring lots of options. I bring a box of apples because I’m trying not to eat crap in the car."
Anne grew up on a farm outside Balbriggan, Co Dublin, in what she describes as an "unusual enough parentage", with two very different influences shaping her early life. "My mother was the farmer and the landowner and the businesswoman, and my father was an actor."
Her father, Barry Cassin, was a much-lauded actor of stage and TV. "I was very influenced by his interests, and I had much more feeling for theatre and actors than I did for farming. I suppose my interest in theatre and the arts would have stemmed from him."
She describes her mother, Nancy, as a "maverick". Nancy generally dressed in farming gear ("As children, we were mortified by this," she says), although when her mother got married, she wore an outfit by the designer Ib Jorgensen, something that came full circle when Cassin interviewed the designer about his permanent exhibition at the National Museum at Collins Barracks two years ago.
"He had designed my mother’s wedding dress. We still have it. It’s a bit raggedy and a bit worse for wear," she says, explaining how she brought it with her when filming a piece on his exhibition. "I was hoping for this moment, with the Kelly green dress and the Jackie O coat, because she married in the ’60s, so it came to the knee, and he had no memory of it at all!" she says. It didn’t matter in the end. "He had his great pal there, Mary Quigley, who was his model, so she wore it. That was really nice."
Her connection to that childhood home has remained. "My brother Andrew farms there still, the same house, the same land, and so I still have that connection. I still go back quite a bit."
She met her husband, Donagh McGrath, deputy head of RTÉ Sport, in the RTÉ newsroom. "He loped up to me. I didn’t realise that he was chatting me up, but actually it was a chat-up line. ‘Do you need some help with that bulletin?’" They no longer work side by side, something she is clear suits them better. "We don’t work together any more. I wouldn’t recommend it. It wouldn’t have worked for us. I try not to bring too much work home. Easier said than done, but you can make a big effort."
Family life has shifted as their children – Ellen, Joe and Heather – have grown up and left the family home in Rathfarnham. "We have three adult children, and my two daughters moved out, and my son lives elsewhere in Dublin, so we have an empty nest now, but Heather will be back because she’s only gone to Germany for her Erasmus year, so it’s grand, it’s just us and the dogs. I feel that the natural order of things is that young adults should sally forth and live their lives. It hasn’t been any sort of drama. It hasn’t been traumatic at all. It’s felt like a natural progression."
She keeps fit by running regularly. "I run, but I’m not fast. I run, really, to keep mentally fit as much as physically fit. It’s as much about the sociability. I’m in a running group with friends. I’ve been doing it for absolute years."
Travel and hiking are also top of the agenda for her and Donagh, she says. "I hike a bit with my husband. We’ve done big trips to Everest Base Camp and all of that, but I don’t think I could do those really long hikes. I find the thought of those very hard. I want to see a bit more of the world, more of European cities as well as a bit further afield. These things are subject to negotiation with my husband. If you choose Spain, then I’ll choose Italy!"
Her appearance on Dancing With The Stars earlier this year brought a different kind of pace and pressure. "It was everything that people had said it would be like, all-consuming, hard work, challenging and a bit addictive as well."
She continues: "I was not a dancer. I was a complete rookie. I found it very hard to get the steps right and I probably worried a bit too much about all of that. The downside of being out of your comfort zone is that you’re a lot of the time feeling quite... uncomfortable! It is uncomfortable! Now sometimes, if I hear music that was used in the show, I am transported back. It still washes through you a little bit."
She’s currently doing a salsa class, although she says: "I am so rubbish; I just kind of follow the instructors and see where it lands. It’s a bit of fun, and at the end of it, you’re smiling."
She’s looking ahead to what is coming up next on Nationwide – Linda Martin and her dogs being one item, with Johnny Logan also present – and many more interesting stories lined up. And always, approached with curiosity. "As you get older, I think we have to fight off our world getting slightly narrower."
