The early afternoon solar is streaming via the floor-to-ceiling home windows of Marconi House’s convention room when broadcaster Claire Byrne breezes in. The Newstalk presenter has been on the go since 5am and already has a full day’s work finished, however, wearing a coral co-ord, her hair and make-up immaculate, she seems as recent because the proverbial daisy.
She thoughtfully strikes a chair to present the Irish Examiner’s photographer a clear background for his last few pictures earlier than sitting down to talk.
She’s in work mode from the minute she wakes up, she tells me, “checking the newspapers on my phone with one eye open”. As she will get prepared, it’s on with the BBC World Service, adopted by Shane Beatty’s Breakfast Briefing on Newstalk — “such a useful resource” — and BBC Radio 4. Then, after a half-hour commute from her Co Wicklow dwelling, she arrives at Newstalk’s city-centre studios for six.30am, from which level it’s “full on”.
By 9am, Byrne is reside on air, presenting three hours of breaking information, present affairs, showbiz, and interviews, adopted by a debrief and dialogue of the subsequent day’s programme. “Then some work happens in the office, and generally I will leave early enough in the afternoon, collect my children from school, feed them, do whatever life-admin bits I need to do, and then I work again in the evening towards the next day.”
By any requirements, it’s an intense schedule, however at this stage of the sport, Byrne, who introduced her 15-year profession at RTÉ to an finish for a recent begin at Newstalk earlier this 12 months, is obvious on what she must do to maintain that hectic tempo.
She goals to be asleep by 10pm throughout the week. “If I’m staying up late and still wandering around the house after 10 o’clock, it’s a disaster. I need my sleep, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that I can’t burn the candle at both ends. It doesn’t serve anybody well around me, or myself. Sleep is key.”
When we meet, the most recent spherical of JNLRs has simply been launched; the second tranche of listenership figures since Byrne took over Pat Kenny’s NewsTalk slot in February. For Byrne, it’s excellent news: The Claire Byrne Show has gained 4,000 listeners since May, upping its viewers to a powerful 210,000. While there may be each motive to rejoice, Byrne is measured about her success. “It’s great. We’re on the right path, but the work never stops to try and grow the audience,” is her pragmatic take. “ It’s positive, but I’m conscious that we have work to do still.”
It’s no shock that the 51-year-old applies the identical measured philosophy to coping with life within the highlight and the trolls that may observe.
“You probably don’t ever get used to people being nasty about you, but it has less of an effect,” she says, and whereas she doesn’t actively go searching for on-line commentary about herself, “sometimes there might be a message that comes to you directly, and you’ll see it, and think, ‘What is wrong with that person that they’ve gone out of their way to say that to me?’ There’s probably something going on in that person’s life that means they have to hit out at somebody like me, who doesn’t know them and probably never will. But it’s never nice to be on the receiving end of trolls.”
She accepts that it’s a part of being in a high-profile place. “I’ve been around long enough to know that being discussed publicly is par for the course. So you have to just take it, and if it’s too much, then you probably shouldn’t be in the business.”
Exercise is important
Claire Byrne: I would like my sleep, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that I can’t burn the candle at each ends. Picture: Gareth Chaney
An honest night time’s sleep probably helps her keep grounded, whereas one other “non-negotiable” that helps preserve her on observe is common train. Over time, she has modified the best way she approaches her health, segueing from coaching intensely in direction of a objective, reminiscent of a half-marathon, after which doing no train in any respect, to extra lately embracing a extra constant routine.
“What I’ve realised over the last, say, five years, is that I have to exercise most days of the week or I can’t function. It’s just so beneficial,” she says. “I exercise at home, because if I have to go out and do it, I won’t do it.”
She has a “very basic” weights set-up, and because the pandemic, has adopted the power coaching routines of Co Antrim-based private coach Caroline Girvan. “I started following her then, and now she’s moved to an app [CGX by Caroline Girvan]. I find her absolutely brilliant. I’ll do her workouts, which are about 40 minutes, between three and five times a week, depending on how my week is working out. Once I have ticked that box, I’m done. I find it great.”
Weight coaching additionally means she now not does “madcap” diets, however chooses as an alternative to eat healthily.
I’m not going to disclaim myself a little bit of chocolate or a glass of wine on a Friday night time, and that fits me, and I’m proud of that. Cutting out meals teams and all that stuff, that’s historical past for me. I simply gained’t do it.
As she has received older, she says, she’s realised, “life is for living, everything in moderation”.
Byrne used to run, however discovered it “hard on the body”. Strength coaching makes her really feel “more resilient” and that she’s “achieving something”, she says, and she or he notices she’s stronger consequently. “I can feel it when I’m taking the shopping out of the car, or having to do any kind of physical work”.
An additional benefit is that since she started “doing it religiously” she hasn’t been sick, “touch wood”.
With three kids — Patrick, 12, Jane, 11, and Emma, 9 — the flexibleness of with the ability to work out at dwelling is important for the Laois native.
“I have to be able to do it on my terms, or I won’t get it done. It has to fit into my day, because a lot of what we are doing now at home is dropping people off and collecting people. Obviously, we don’t have nappies, but we have all of the different activities that they do, so we’re very busy.”
Importance of household time
You most likely don’t ever get used to individuals being nasty about you, however it has much less of an impact. Picture: Gareth Chaney
At dwelling, the opposite half of that ‘we’ is Byrne’s husband of 10 years, Microsoft govt Gerry Scollan. Quality time with household is a precedence, and Byrne takes “a good break every summer” to facilitate that. “I take three weeks off, and we go away together as a family.” Those three weeks are a “really nice time to have a reset and spend time with your children”, she says, whereas admitting — as many dad and mom do — there are moments when she will’t wait for varsity to renew and for everybody to be again in a routine.
She’s “not really” in a position to change off on vacation, however is OK with that.
“To be honest, I think if I came back and I hadn’t been looking at the news in some way, I’d feel very much at sea for maybe two weeks. So I don’t do that.”
Even with one eye on work, she views the summer season sojourn as “a precious time” along with her household. “I really enjoy it, and I really value it, and I think you see a lot of changes in your children over the summer as well. I always find that in the summertime they grow more, and they develop more and become more mature. I almost felt like I was bearing witness to that this summer because they’re moving on, and my eldest is going into secondary school.”
Her kids are “in that lovely sweet spot where they still like us. And that might change,” she says. “We’ve built a lovely relationship with our children, and I hope that they feel they can be open with us, and that what we did in the early years will stand to us and to them as they go through the maybe the more difficult years as teenagers.”
Whether on the radio station or at dwelling, laborious work doesn’t faze Byrne. She’s a grafter with excessive requirements and has her off days like anybody else, however it’s how she offers with them that units her aside.
“I think no matter what job you’re in, if you’re having a bad day, you have to just take a deep breath and get on with it, don’t you?” she says. “I can’t go into that show at nine in the morning and grump. I have to leave all of that behind. And that means if something isn’t working out, take a deep breath, leave it on the back burner until you’re off air. You have a job to do.”
Doing a job nicely is “very, very motivating” for her, and whereas she likes “making a success of things”, she admits to by no means having had “a grand plan”, regardless of individuals typically assuming she does.
“I never do,” she says. “I like focusing on what I’m doing right now.”
And she’s smashing it.
The Claire Byrne Show’, Monday to Friday, 9am to 12pm, Newstalk