Loraine ‘surprised’ old school hasn’t invited her back to visit
DANCING With The Stars judge Loraine Barry admitted this weekend that she was ‘a bit surprised’ she hasn’t been invited back to her old school in Cabra, Dublin.
‘I pass it nearly every day that I’m here because it’s straight up the road,’ she laughed. ‘I often look in because there’s a big hall in there. And I remember doing a dance competition in that school hall, so I often look in and remember those days too.
‘A lot of places I’m a bit surprised I don’t get an invitation. I think maybe it’s because I don’t live here. It could be that. Maybe they think I’m not around,’ she said.
However the head judge, who was born and raised in working-class Cabra West in north Dublin but lives in London, says that she is very warmly received when out and about here and that it is ‘always my voice’ that makes people realise who she is.
‘People say, “Oh, it’s you.” Even being in Tesco [recently] with a tracksuit on and a cap and I said to this lady, “Can you tell me where that is?” And she went, “Oh, it’s you.”
‘And that’s just lovely. It’s just lovely when people are lovely,’ the show favourite said.
The former pro dancer also said it was ‘powerful’ to be able to speak out against social media trolls earlier in this series.
Ms Barry called out online bullies early on in the series after a dance by Virgin Media presenter Katja Mia, who had been subjected to some cruel trolling about her weight. She insisted that everyone, ‘whatever shape and size’, has the right to dance.
‘And if you have a problem with that, it is your problem,’ Ms Barry said directly to the camera.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s episode, the former world champion dancer said the speech needed to be made and that it felt ‘powerful, because I have got that platform’.
Ms Barry said she has not had direct experience of trolling herself but she has seen its harmful effects on plenty of other people she knows.
And because of how easy it is to anonymously attack someone, she said she is ‘very, very lucky’ not to ‘get trolled’ herself.
‘I can put my hand on my heart and say that. I don’t get trolled and I’m fortunate for that.
‘But I think I’m just lucky because I know other people… [Strictly Come Dancing judge] Shirley Ballas in London, a friend of mine – it’s very bad for her.’