After the year that changed our lives, a new podcast from RTÉ seeks to find out what we really value.
Core Values, presented by RTÉ journalist Carla O'Brien, hears from people in Irish public life and the parts of their lives that are now most important.
Throughout the series, guests will describe the aspects of their lives that have gained, retained or lost value, as well as elaborate on their most valued possessions, and their MVPs - their most valuable players.
"I’m sweatin’ here." He is the horse racing household name, and veteran of the soundbite, but Ruby Walsh has just spent 40 minutes answering questions that aren’t usually asked of him.
The 12-time champion jockey kindly agreed to delve into his experience of the past year and a half, for RTÉ’s Core Values.
"I think a lot of questions you've asked me today would be a very deep conversation for me. Even trying to verbalise what I believe, or feel is often not very easy."
The 42-year-old is adept at answering tough questions. He has now turned his hand to asking them too. After a racing career that spanned three decades, he is now a multi-platform pundit as well as a presenter on RTÉ 2fm’s Game On. He lives in Kildare with his wife Gillian and their four daughters.
Being able to work throughout the pandemic has been a luxury, he said.
"Racing is my ultimate background but even getting to do Game On; being able to work and have a job in lockdown helped me to realise the value of being involved in sport. I was lucky to have that."
However, he deems his trusted internet connection to be his most valued possession.
"I value my internet connection, more than I ever did. I'm very lucky to live in an area where the fibre broadband goes past my gate. I have never valued the internet quite as much as I do know. It has enabled me to live my life pretty much as normal. I hope it never goes down, because that will mean I have to go and move again!"
The spread of Covid-19 and the resulting travel restrictions has shown Ruby how little he enjoyed commuting.
"To have that gone out of my life has given me more time at home. I would have been commuting to RTÉ two days a week, and to the UK, to London once a week for various TV programs, and studio recordings."
He said he was "always rushing" and acknowledged that he may never be able to change that part of himself.
"I don’t miss travelling. I don't miss being stuck in traffic. I don't miss red eye flights. I don't miss standing in security lines at the airport. I don't miss trying to buy my ticket for the Tube, pressing the wrong button and you can see the Tube about to pull off and you haven't quite bought the tickets. I don't miss any of that.
"I tended to make deadlines as tight as possible to try and minimise the time I was gone. Therefore, I was probably always rushing. I don't think I could ever change that part of myself. So not having to go, has probably changed it for me."
The setting of goals and targets has served the two-time Grand National winner well, but he admits that this can often prevent him living in the present.
"I have always needed a deadline. I have always needed goals, and targets. I don't miss riding but if I could just break that cycle of having to have something to look forward to; if I could just learn to live more in the now, I think I would be a better person."
He said the pandemic allowed him to "slow down".
"The phones stopped ringing. We all stopped being in a hurry. We all stopped wondering what we were missing out on. I am lucky to live in a rural area, where we have space. The pace of life slowed right down, and I don’t think it did too many of us harm."
Walsh may have bowed out from racing as one of the finest National Hunt jockeys in history, but his work continues to be important to him.
"Because I work in sport, I was lucky. So, I guess my income streams retained their value. Because sport continued, I was in a very fortunate position."
"I’m no different than anyone else. You have commitments; you have bills to pay. I know we were all given different chances by different institutions, on how to deal with those things but I was in a fortunate position in that my work retained its value and I was able to keep tippin’ along, trying to keep my head above water, and I am grateful for that."
Ruby said time he spends at home has gained value over the past year. He plans to use this time wisely by trying to "live in the moment a bit more".
"Gillian would say I’m working harder than ever, so maybe I haven't. But to me, it's like I am here more and that I've gained time.
"I didn’t always have an appreciation for how precious time is. I was always in a hurry, and always looking forward. Maybe that comes with parenthood or getting the wrong side of 40 but I definitely have a bigger appreciation of time."
To find out who the special person who Ruby classes as his "MVP", and the core value with which he lives his life by, listen to the full episode of RTÉ’s Core Values, wherever you get your podcasts.
