You won’t see me on Dancing With The Stars or Ireland’s Got Talent
Me on four or five times a week was overkill... the idea is to spread me throughout the year
THE café at the radio centre in RT is playfully titled the Sound Bite Canteen and through the floor-to-ceiling glass walls RTÉ’s finest broadcasters are bathed in beautiful summer sunshine.
Sitting on one of the red leather couches is Kathryn Thomas and around her neck, two golden discs with the letters K and P, reflect the brilliant sunbeams. The P is the initial of her fiancée, restaurateur Padraig McLoughlin, and after months of celebrating Kathryn says they have finally got round to doing some wedding planning.
‘The date we are looking at now is August or September 2018’, she says, playing with her somewhat impressive engagement ring. ‘We kind of pushed it out because I got engaged and went on a big celebratory roll for a few months leading into Christmas and then just got invited out to loads of dinners and parties.
‘We are really just enjoying being engaged so we didn’t feel in any hurry to pick a date. Then the girls all sent me their different spread sheets from their weddings about six weeks after we got engaged and that was just too much. So I put them in a drawer out of sight until I needed them.
‘I know myself that when I get into the planning end of things it is relentless and I want to enjoy this moment for as long as I can. I wouldn’t say I’m a Bridezilla , far from it but I am a bit of a control freak and I know I will treat it like I am organising an event.’
Padraig popped the question last year while the couple were staying at the luxurious Ballyfin House in Laois. But it wasn’t a candlelit dinner that the proposal took place over – Padraig got down on one knee while Kathryn was wearing a dressing gown and tucking into a pack of salted peanuts.
‘The pair has been dating since the summer of 2013 and Kathryn says they have both promised to bring that calmer attitude into the planning process.
‘I organise a lot of charity events that have about 350 people attending and I know I will just get into event mode with the wedding’, she says. ‘There is plenty of time for that and we will be married forever so we are going to enjoy the engagement for as long as we can.
‘We are still making decisions but we are slowly ticking things off the list and the date is the first. I think picking the location is the hardest part. He is from Offaly and I am from Carlow and neither of us cares where it happens as long as it feels right and has the vibe that we are looking for.
‘Part of it is putting it in your diary to go around looking at places and everyone says that the tastings are the best so I’m looking forward to that. And for him obviously as a restaurateur he is all about the food whereas I am all about the knees-up. So I’ll let him cover the catering and I’ll deal with music, band, party, drink so we are dove-tailing already.’
Like most brides-to-be, Kathryn is trying to avoid the huge Irish wedding to keep the numbers at a manageable limit.
‘We are not sure on the size I would say about 180,’ she says. ‘We started at 240 and we are now down by 60 but it really depends on the venue. You could do a really cool dinner and then do a big party afterwards but there are lots of options out there that we haven’t explored yet. I am the person with the honeymoon and that is the part that I am looking forward to. I know exactly where I am going as well. That’s why I want a really cheap wedding so I can have a really expensive honeymoon.’
For the near future Kathryn says she has plenty to keep her going. She has just spent two weeks filling in for Ray D’Arcy on Radio One; a gig she says has reinvigorated her passion for broadcasting. So much so that she has already signed up to do further cover for the radio and TV star in August and one day she hopes to have a show of her own.
‘I finished on Friday and I did two weeks and I love it and the team are brilliant and I just felt I had a good run at it. I am actually back on again in August. Getting two weeks was brilliant because when you do the odd day here and there you can’t get your teeth into anything but two weeks you just feel like the audience gets to know you and you kind of get what topics work and what don’t. I got to do some really good interviews like Terry Waite which was great.
‘That’s a story that I would have known growing up and I would have been very aware of Brian Keenan and that harrowing tale. But I never really got under the Terry Waite kidnap and that was brilliant – we got a great response from the listeners.
‘Of course then there was Tom Jones which was Thursday, that was very cool. Was it a chin wag or a flirt? I kind of restrained myself ever so slightly, mind you there were messages coming in about how in awe I was of him and telling me to pick my jaw up off the floor. To be honest I really wanted to ask him about Axl Rose because he had just gone on the lash with him in London. And he said they were causing havoc in the Chiltern Firehouse and watching boxing and that was really cool.
‘I would love to have my own show. It is something that I would like to think is a real possibility but the schedule here is so tight and the shows are so good that it is not just a simple thing to do. I do believe that there is always more room for women on air and women’s issues, they are the sort of subjects that I like covering on air. I did some all-female panels this week and I felt that they worked really well – I would certainly like to think that getting my own programme would be a possibility in the future.’
Radio is one of the few places in RTÉ where you will now find Kathryn, once the ubiquitous star of the schedule. In fact it was a conscious decision by the host to take a step back from prime time presenting as she felt her presence across the schedule was proving too much pressure on her personal life.
‘I think some people would say that is not a bad thing (that I am not in the schedule) because it was quite full on at one point. Between Operation Transformation and The Voice and the repeats it was too much. So I am working with RTÉ now on different ideas and projects for September 2018.
‘We start Celebrity Operation Transformation at the beginning of August, we are into pre-production and I found out who all the celebrities are. I think that is going to be a great bit of craic and we have a lot of big personalities and a few fire crackers in it; people who aren’t afraid to say what they think. We had some great ones last year, Elaine Crowley just said it as it is but this year more so than last year, as a collective there will be bigger opinions. That’s September and then we are into the search for the leaders for the next series of Operation Transformation.’
While she has signed up just for the Operation Transformation format Kathryn has also branched out into television development with Shinawil, the company that makes Dancing With The Stars for RTÉ.
‘Yes the workload on TV has probably slowed down but what I am doing instead is working behind the scenes on development and ideas for September 2018 and there are lots of exciting ideas there.
‘I would like to think there is a chance for a Kathryn Thomas developed reality TV show for September 2018.
‘I created a great format with Larry Bass (the Voice, Dancing With The Stars) and we developed it and RTÉ couldn’t do it this year but they are looking at possibly doing it next year. What is really exciting is that Larry has that format now and he is also looking at pitching it abroad to different networks.
‘It has created a bit of interest and that end of things was really exciting because you put a lot of work into creating the format, which is a co-production with Shinawil and myself, and you have to put it out to see and see if there are any bites on the fishing line. It went to distributors in the States and to Cannes and the UK so we are just waiting.
‘We are developing other formats as well and I really love the change of pace taking an idea from start to shooting to working out budgets and that was a couple of months that was really different but productive.’
For that very reason you won’t see Kathryn heading down the fake tan and glitter route, lining out for sea-
I’ll let him cover the catering... I’ll deal with music, party, drink. We’re dovetailing already
son two of Dancing With The Stars. Nor will you see her cross the city to host TV3’s new shiny floor talent show Ireland’s Got Talent.
‘You won’t see me on Ireland’s got Talent or Dancing With The Stars. The idea is to spread me throughout the year. Because I just felt like it was too much. The workload was just too much in terms of being on four or five times a week over two channels. It was overkill and it just got to a time where we needed to be a bit more considered with me in the schedule.’
Instead Kathryn will shift her focus onto her fitness and wellbeing boot camps called Pure Results fitness.
In their third year now, Kathryn along with her sister Linda are finding their groove and have now moved into the corporate market. In three years there has only ever been one camp I have missed. So I do try to get to every session even if it is only for one or two days. Generally I am there two or three days in a week long camp.
‘The business has just grown and expanded over the three years and we are actually doing a lot more corporate work now.
‘We work with companies doing off and on-site wellness programmes. We are doing one day detoxes for people and we just did Cork where we had 130 people who were with us from breakfast to dinner doing workshops and classes on nutrition. We are heading to Galway to do it in August and that has been a new avenue for us. Between that and the camps and developing online merchandise as well it has been really busy.
‘What we are trying to do is to take the self-consciousness out of weight loss. Most of the people who come down to us want to lose weight. Equally we get people who are return clients who are really into fitness and who love getting away from the kids, husband or wife for a week and have your meals served up and to have classes outdoor in Kerry or Westport.’
Following a similar ethos as Operation Transformation, Kathryn and her team aim to make lasting changes that can give longterm results. It is also about creating a camp where people can be comfortable with their body shapes and not feel judged or shamed in to losing weight.
‘Really the main focus for me is to create a safe space for people to really make changes in their lives and realise that it is not about numbers on a scale all the time. It is about getting healthy and that by being healthier you will lose weight.
‘It is about recognising that by taking care of yourself better with just small changes and how you can make sure in your head that you are in the right place before you start putting pressure on your body.
‘It all really starts in your head and what can seem like an insurmountable mountain actually, when you break it down to your day-to-day life, is manageable. Rather than targeting that you must lose a stone in a month for a wedding.
‘It is better to look long-term over six or 12 months at what will actually make you happier because if you are healthier you are happier and the weight loss will come and that is the ethos we are coming form.
‘Yes we all want to look good and wear skinny jeans and drop pounds but really it shouldn’t be about a quick fix. And honestly it is really not that hard when your head is in the right place.
Conversely it can be torture when your head isn’t in the right space and you are constantly giving out to yourself for falling off the wagon and punishing yourself. It is about changing a mind-set.’