MOVING ON WAS VERY MUCH MY DECISION
As famous faces disappear from Virgin Media, in a frank interview Anna Daly says her departure was on her own terms
AS a working mother with three small boys, Anna Daly’s life is spent rushing around from school runs to business meetings to TV appearances. But since she vacated her spot on the Ireland AM couch, there’s even more to do as life as a freelance presenter means you never know where you are going to end up next.
There have been big changes at the station — Anna is just one presenter who has flown the coop as Aidan Power, Laura Woods and Matt Cooper have all departed in the last few weeks.
But Anna insists she left on her own terms as her range of ethical lifestyle clothing for adults and children began to take off.
‘I was ready to move on myself,’ she says. ‘I have too many opportunities that I don’t want to keep saying no to. It was very much my decision.
‘I think I was ready to manage my own diary and not rule things out because I wouldn’t be allowed to do them — from commercial opportunities to appearances.’
Setting up a new business in the midst of a pandemic is not something a lot of us would contemplate but Anna believes launching Little Bliss in December 2020 gave her the confidence to become her own boss.
‘It’s eight months in and people are buying it, it’s working and the figures are great so we are well ahead of any projections,’ she says. ‘That gave me the confidence as well to walk away and take a chance.’
Anna knows, however, that retail can be a risky business. During the pandemic her husband Ben Ward’s family business went into liquidation. His father David had brought the Mothercare brand to Ireland in 1998 and Ben worked in the company with his brother Jonathan and sister Laura.
Retail closures due to Covid-19 caused the loss of the business.
‘They had 14 or 15 stores closed week after week during lockdown and it would have been irresponsible to try and keep it going to be honest with you,’ Anna says.
‘It had a lot of heritage in Ireland. There was a huge trust in the brand and people have kind of emotional connections with it because they might have told a Mothercare staff member that they were pregnant before they even told their whole family.
‘There is no doubt it was very difficult for them but they have bounced back — Ben and his brother and sister have set up an online nursery business, Kaliedy. That’s up and running and they have managed to keep some key Mothercare people in that new business and it’s going great.’
‘When Mothercare went it was desperately sad times for Ben and for the whole family to be honest. It was much more than just a job and just a business. But I suppose that gave me a bit of a kick up the arse in terms of future-proofing myself
‘So I decided, I am going to do this and I am going to do this true to my own style, which is not dressed up, glamorous studio wear, she says of her Little Bliss range. ‘It’s hoodies and casual stuff, it’s me kicking a ball around with my kids on the green.
‘I launched it last December and I didn’t think it would take off as quickly as it did, which is a great complaint to have. I was packing it from my house, from my kids’ playroom, until it absolutely exploded and there weren’t enough hours in the day to keep packing the boxes.
‘I was able to hire a guy in Portlaoise who runs a fulfillment company and does all of the packing and sending once an order comes in on the website.
‘It has grown fast and I need time to develop it and promote it. I was restricted in Virgin, I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do because you are very much part of Virgin.’
The change in both their careers has also meant a change of pace in their family life too as they care for their three boys, James, 10, Euan, 8, and four-year-old Rhys. ‘Kaliedy is all online and Ben is working from home which gives us a lovely bit of balance,’ Anna says. ‘He would have gone over to an office in Blanchardstown every day from our home in Greystones so there is a better work/life balance going on at the moment. The pandemic has been a very anxious time and Covid has been awful. Sometimes you think it’s all disastrous when you’re in it but when you take a step away from it you realise actually it is for the better.’
During the height of the pandemic Anna continued to work in Ireland AM which, she says, gave her a sense of normality.
‘When most people were at home my job just continued as normal,’ she says. ‘There were times when we weren’t sure that we would be able to continue as normal or if we would be on air the next day. But it did give me a sense of normality and as my husband would say it got me off homeschooling which suited me down to the ground,’ Anna laughs.
‘I did have schoolwork to do, although there were days when I abandoned the whole thing and said “right we are going out walking” or “we are baking” or “we are doing something different”. If it was working, it was fine, if it didn’t, I didn’t sweat it too much.’
So it seems like a big risk to leave behind that normality in search of something new but Anna says it’s exciting to pivot. And, like her jump from marketing into television presenting, Anna insists she wouldn’t have done it if she didn’t believe she could.
‘I’d say I am more about measured risks,’ she tells me, when I ask if she is a bit of a daredevil.
‘Even when I took the Ireland AM job, I had been asked to do a screen test before when I was working in marketing and I felt it was pure notions going for screen
‘I felt it was pure notions going for screen tests’
tests — that pure Irish attitude. And then I went and did a broadcasting course in Milltown in production, directing, presenting and more, and I actually loved it.
‘So I went back to Ireland AM then and said ‘Lads, if I’m not too late…’
‘I did the research behind the scenes in my own time with my own money doing this private course so that I could be sure that is exactly what I wanted.
‘I think setting up any business is going to have risk attached but, for me, being able to do something that I love, that I launched, that I control means it’s my risk, I suppose, and I can decide what it looks like and what it represents. To have
control over something as a TV presenter is very refreshing.’ Now that she has left Virgin, new opportunities are popping up. A few weeks ago she was in RTÉ for the first time, taking part in The Today Show, a move that sent social media into a whirl when fans saw Anna on screen again. ‘It has been lovely to work on the Today Show,’ she says. ‘It was weird being in RTÉ — I felt like I was having an affair or something because TV3/Virgin is where I have been for all of my broadcasting life. ‘So it has been quite the novelty to be in the RTÉ studios. Yeah, hopefully I will be able to do a lot more with them.’ There are so many other things to do too, though. She is working as a consultant with the media training end of The Communications Clinic, helping train people in the art of doing a successful TV interview. She is also an ambassador for the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland’s Irish Business Design Challenge which is open now for entries. She has also been a contributor on the Beyond Migraine Podcast — a new initiative by the Migraine Association of Ireland and Teva Pharmaceuticals — where she talks of her own issues with the condition and what she can do to combat them. ‘I would have had headaches on and off, maybe slightly more than your average person, but I never actually thought they were migraines. Then they got worse during pregnancy so I realised they were definitely linked to menstrual times, pregnancy — hormonal changes in my body.’ It was only a couple of years ago that she felt so ill on her way to work that she actually drove herself into the nearest hospital. ‘I was on my way into Ireland AM in the early morning. I had a headache that was going on for about three days. I could not bear it any longer and drove myself into Loughlinstown hospital. They put me in an ambulance into St Vincent’s. I got tested and went through this whole list of checks and I was diagnosed with migraine two years ago.
‘I kind of went through my whole life assuming I just had the odd headache here and there and as I got a little bit older and definitely after pregnancy I got headaches that went on for days, They might only strike two or three times a year so I am not a classic migraine sufferer but I do know exactly how they feel.’
And doing the podcast with Dr Mary Ryan has helped Anna manage her condition better.
‘She highlighted a few very basic things,’ Anna says. ‘Migraine sufferers shouldnt skip breakfast but for years when I was on Ireland AM I would have coffee after coffee after coffee, skip breakfast then eat like a trucker when I’d come off air because you are starving. Her point was you let your body go too long without food and eating when you come off air having been up since 5am is too late.
‘It sounds really basic but you should be looking after yourself. And it was only when she said that, that I thought I really do need to slow down and prioritise myself. ‘It’s the nature of your work and it’s hard to make the time, but any doctor would argue that if you can make time for hair and make up, you can make time for your breakfast.’
Making time for herself is easier now that she has weekends free to spend with her family. ‘It’s only when you get your weekends back that you realise they are at such a premium,’ she says.
‘Not that I would be swinging out of the chandeliers with three little boys to be honest — your life is still very organised and planned ahead.
‘But it is lovely to feel like Friday night is Friday night — Netflix and wine and not reading over notes for the next day.
‘And the boys are starting to have matches and things on a Saturday now so it is lovely to be able to be there.
‘They are aware of mum and dad on the sidelines to support them and cheer them on.
‘There’s a free feeling with Thursday and Friday vibes that I’m really enjoying now.’
‘It was weird being in RTÉ. I felt like I was having an affair’