{"id":487179,"date":"2026-06-07T06:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487179\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T06:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T06:33:09","slug":"mary-kennedy-i-lost-that-adult-relationship-with-my-dad-and-id-give-anything-to-have-it-back-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487179\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Kennedy: \u2018I lost that adult relationship with my dad and I\u2019d give anything to have it back\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

How agreeable are you? <\/p>\n

I actually think I\u2019m very agreeable. I don\u2019t always wear that as a badge of honour, because sometimes I think I\u2019m \u2013 well, I used to be; I\u2019m less so now as I get older \u2013 a terrible people pleaser. I would do anything to avoid confrontation. Very agreeable and, in the past, too agreeable? <\/p>\n

What is your middle name and what do you think of it? <\/p>\n

My middle name is Elizabeth, and I absolutely love it. I think it is the most elegant, lyrical name. I often said to my mother I\u2019d love to have been called Elizabeth, but that wasn\u2019t going to happen. I think I was called after my dad\u2019s sister, Betty. I have a good friend called Betty too, but now if I had the [first] name Elizabeth, I would guard it with my life. <\/p>\n

Where is your favourite place in Ireland? <\/p>\n

I love Dublin. I love my home. I love the fact that I\u2019m close to my friends and my family. My sister lives on Inishmore and I absolutely love going there. I love the idea of being on the island. Having worked for [RT\u00c9 programme] Nationwide for so long, I\u2019ve been to so many gorgeous places. My friend Betty has a place down in Kerry, in Brandon. But I suppose I would say, apart from my home, probably Inishmore. <\/p>\n

Describe yourself in three words<\/p>\n

Easy-going. This is such a contradiction in terms, because I am very easy-going, but I can also be quite anxious, which I don\u2019t think negates the other. You know, I am anxious about things that relate to myself. But I\u2019m easy-going. And third: garden. <\/p>\n

When did you last get angry?<\/p>\n

Referring back, I\u2019m agreeable to a fault, but I get angry every time I see on television or social media what\u2019s happening in Gaza and Ukraine. That makes me so, so angry. It\u2019s just appalling when it\u2019s to do with children and innocent people. I just can\u2019t get my head around it. I find it makes me very angry and absolutely devastated for where we are in the world at the moment. <\/p>\n

What is your strongest childhood memory?<\/p>\n

My memory is visual; I tend to take my memories from photographs, things like that. But I have a very strong memory of a wonderful holiday we had over in Geesala, in Mayo. We were in a really old house and we realised on the first day that there was a stream that would run across the kitchen floor when the tide was in. So we had to jump from the kitchen table to the sink and jump from the sink back to the kitchen table.<\/p>\n

We kids \u2013 I\u2019m not too sure about our parents or my aunt and uncle who were with us on holidays \u2013 appreciated it. That\u2019s a really strong memory \u2013 of having a river in your kitchen. It was great fun because there was myself, my siblings and my three cousins from next door. We always went on holidays together. <\/p>\n

What have you lost that you would like to have back? <\/p>\n

I would have to say my dad. He\u2019s very much at the forefront of that [holiday] memory. He died when he was 59. He had a heart attack playing golf and I was only 21. I would love, love, love to know [how the] adult relationship between me and my dad would have evolved. I think it would have been really lovely. He was a great character. He had a sense of humour and fun, and he was gregarious. I really feel that\u2019s what I lost. I lost that adult relationship with my dad and I\u2019d give anything to have it back or to have had it. <\/p>\n

Where do you come in your family\u2019s birth order and has it defined you?<\/p>\n

Oh, definitely. I\u2019m the eldest. Firstborn. The person with all the responsibility and seriousness. And I was a very serious younger person, a very serious child. I was very studious. For me, it was always belt and braces. If everybody else around me was studying, saying, \u201cOh, that poem won\u2019t come up because it was on the Leaving Cert last year,\u201d that wouldn\u2019t do me. I\u2019d be afraid. I would study everything. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mary Kennedy: \u2018I had to give up work when I was 65. I didn\u2019t choose to leave RT\u00c9\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure it was a pain because I used to study above the television room, in my bedroom and I couldn\u2019t bear the noise. I would have a little umbrella or something and I\u2019d tap it on the floor. You\u2019d go down and you\u2019d see them all sitting right up at the television screen because that\u2019s the only way they could hear it. No headphones in those days.<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary Kennedy: ‘I didn\u2019t want to retire because I didn\u2019t know what was beyond retirement.’ When do you think you were happiest? <\/p>\n

To be honest, I am happy by disposition. I had a very happy childhood. I am happy now. When I\u2019m asked that question, I\u2019m more inclined to answer that I am happy, but there have been moments in my life when I have been unhappy. Of course, one was when my dad died. Another one was when my marriage ended. That was a very unhappy time. When my mother died, it was a different type of sadness because there was a time to say goodbye and to tell her that she was loved. I can\u2019t pick out the happiest, I can pick out the times when I wasn\u2019t happy. It\u2019s a long time since I was not happy. <\/p>\n

What do you think happens when we die? <\/p>\n

Well, I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t been there. I think we are very spiritual beings. I would love to think that the spirit goes on. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s in my imagination, but the people who I loved who have died, I can still feel their presence. You know the old, old tradition of the robin coming into you, just getting close to you, that that\u2019s a soul of somebody who was in your life? I just love that. <\/p>\n

Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life? <\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s nothing to do with me, I\u2019m not getting above my station by saying I\u2019d love Meryl Streep. But what I\u2019ve noticed about her is, I always considered her to be a very serious woman, a bit like me. I just saw clips around her promoting The Devil Wears Prada \u2013 she was a clown. She was acting, playing, laughing, messing with people. I got an insight into her; [she has] a genuine funny side. A lot of people think of me as being quite serious, but I\u2019d like them to know that I have a fun side as well. <\/p>\n

What is your biggest career\/personal regret?<\/p>\n

I have had a blessed career. I loved being a teacher. I loved all the opportunities with RT\u00c9. And a lot of people say \u201cbut didn\u2019t you want to retire?\u201d I didn\u2019t want to retire because I didn\u2019t know what was beyond retirement. But let me tell you, what was beyond retirement has been just joy. <\/p>\n

Mary Kennedy presents Moving West on Tuesdays on TG4 at 7.30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How agreeable are you? I actually think I\u2019m very agreeable. I don\u2019t always wear that as a badge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60,194033,8764,6085,976],"class_list":["post-487179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mary-kennedy","tag-mayo","tag-rte","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}