Mary and beau Tom dance into the West
I’m sure Mary Kennedy — like the rest of us — is somewhere between Nietzsche (“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once”) and George Bernard Shaw (“Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire”) after her nation-entrancing turn on Dancing with the Stars over the past nine weeks with dance partner John Nolan.
She and her real life partner Tom were at the launch in the Westbury on Wednesday night of The
Wedding Candle by Jenny McCarthy. (Is Mary trying to tell us something? Is she planning on getting married again?) “I have been nowhere except John’s dance studio for three months,” she told me. “We do plan to go away for a few days, maybe the week after next. I’ve no idea where yet. Somewhere in the west. Aran islands? Donegal? Kerry?”
The newly retired ex
Nationwide host said she had been chatting during the week about “taking dance classes with John, and some other friends said they’re like that too. So we could be starting a whole new trend! A lovely trend. Dancing is exhilarating, physical, creative...”
Does Mary dance at home of an evening with Tom?
“No, I do not!” she laughed, adding that she is an ambassador for Tourism Day on April 17, when “hundreds of attractions and cultural experiences will be available free of entry charge to visitors.
“It’s the Friday after Easter so the children will still be on school holidays and it will be a nice way to introduce them to important places of interest in Ireland.”
How does she feel about being eliminated from
DWTS?
“I was surprised by how devastated I felt. I was philosophical on Monday and am still happy that the correct decision was made about which couple — Grainne and Kai — should go through. On Tuesday, however, the sadness took hold. I was so sorry not to be learning a new dance and continuing the sevenhour training day which I found satisfying and stimulating. I was tearful and emotional, and found it hard to settle on any activity. Time is a healer of course. Onwards and upwards now.”
Apropos of which, Mary spoke at the Samaritans’ 50th Anniversary event in City Hall last Thursday about the importance of mental wellbeing. On Friday, she attended the Chernobyl lunch in the InterContinental Hotel, supporting her friend Adi Roche.
“I travelled to Belarus with her and Ali [Hewson] two years ago, and the difference Chernobyl Children International has made to the lives of so many people in that devastated part of the world is incredible.”