Cover Story Nuala Carey We know Nuala Carey as the vivacious preseneter of weather and Lotto, but she has been smiling through the pain this year, as she tells Michael Doherty
The popular weather presenter, Nuala Carey, sits down with Michael Doherty to talk about life, her career and looking after her beloved father
For someone who has been a fixture on our TV screens for almost 20 years, we know relatively little about Nuala Carey. The short description would say ‘Weather Presenter,’ yet there are many strings to the Dubliner’s bow. The broadcaster is so synonymous with the Lotto draw, for example, that people sometimes stop her in the street to touch their lottery tickets for good luck. But Nuala, who describes herself as “a bit of a worker bee”, has also been a coach on Celebrity Bainisteoir (putting Shannonbridge GFC through their paces), a contestant on Charity You’re a Star (channelling her inner Britney, at one point), and taken temporary control of the presenting reins on both Winning Streak and Today with Dáithí and Maura.
Not to mention her star turns at the National Ploughing Championships, being a featured extra on Braveheart (Mel Gibson carried her through a forest!), and her prominent contributions to the coverage of the recent Papal visit.
Over a latte, Nuala takes a moment to reflect on the previous day’s RTÉ Guide cover shoot. Some TV personalities regard the (admittedly time-consuming) process of hair, make-up, clothes choices and locations as at best, a necessary evil and at worst, akin to root canal surgery. For her part, Nuala was thoroughly engaged by the process, regularly reviewing the images with photographer, John Cooney during the shoot. Nuala knows her own mind and her own style: she was particularly happy with the red and burgundy options for her cover shoot. “What works for me is to keep it simple,” she explains. “For example, the dress I’m wearing on screen today is from Dunnes. I don’t care where an outfit is from as long as it does the job. For me, that means a strong, block colour that isn’t distracting from the message. I’ll always go a little bit more glittery for the Lotto, because it’s more celebratory. I never care about labels, but I do love a bargain. I don’t like spending too much on clothes!”
Of course, when you’re been on screen for years, women in particular get used to close scrutiny of what they wear and quickly get to know what works. “I started quite young, when I look back on it,” says Nuala. “I haven’t watched things back from a long time ago; nobody likes doing that, but as you get more mature, you become more comfortable in your own skin and more confident of your outfit choices. But it depends on the audience, too. When I worked on the Pope’s visit in August, I was very conscious of what outfit I could wear for a concert welcoming the Pope. It’s all about context.”
For her most recent event, the inaugural National Lottery Good Causes Awards 2018, Nuala was able to ramp up the glam quotient for a project very close to her heart. In addition to being a Lotto presenter, Nuala was one of the judges for the Awards. “I was delighted to be there,” says Nuala. “Apart from being a judge, my life is intertwined with the National Lottery. When you buy a lottery ticket or a scratch card, 30 cent in every euro is put aside for good causes. Maybe a lot of people aren’t aware of that, so it’s great to be able to highlight that fact. The overall winner was the Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick, a very worthy cause. I really enjoyed being part of the judging panel with Bobby Kerr as our chairman. We chatted to all the finalists and it was wonderful to meet people and have them tell us their own stories. My Mum came with me to the Awards. It was our first night out in about six months.” Nuala’s last remark speaks volumes. To the outside world, the presenter has been her usual, vivacious self on screen. Her family, friends and colleagues, however, are aware of the strains in her personal life since her Dad, Maurice, was diagnosed with cancer. Nuala is someone who always tries to put her best foot forward and understands the old adage
Sometimes when I’m presenting the Lotto and being bubbly, I do wonder how I’m doing this when everything is going so wrong in another part of my life
that the show must go on. “Even when I’m in the hospital visiting Dad,” she explains, “people will come up and be asking me about the Lotto numbers or the weather! I know that people don’t know I’m visiting my Dad, so I really don’t mind. I always tell them that if I did have the six numbers, I’d have picked them for myself and I’d be long gone!”
Despite her cheery disposition, it’s clear from talking to Nuala that her thoughts are constantly with her Dad. “I’m good at separating work and my private life,” she says. “I think I can do it because of the amateur dramatics I did when I was young. So many close friends have said to my Mum over the past few months, ‘I still see Nuala on the telly; isn’t she great?’ But it’s because I can separate the two things. I love coming to work, I really do. I like the people that work here and I feel very safe and protected. Sometimes when I’m presenting the Lotto and being bubbly, I do wonder how I’m doing this when everything is going so wrong in another part of my life. But when you work in this business, you have to be able to split the two, otherwise the world would stop turning. Everybody has a cross to bear.” Nuala has been carrying her particular cross since her Dad was first diagnosed, even if at the time, she says, “we never knew it would be this challenging. When my Dad was first diagnosed with cancer, it hadn’t spread. It all looked like it could be sorted. We were thrilled with that news. Dad started with chemo and radiotherapy and we had a plan for everything. Because I work so near to St Vincent’s Hospital, I could drop him and collect him or even just sit with him ’til my Mum collected him. He had an operation in May to remove the pancreas and the cancer. I was thrilled that he survived that operation, but he developed type 1 diabetes afterwards, which was expected. He came home but he wasn’t thriving and he couldn’t walk unaided. And he was always tired. Dad went back to hospital on a Friday evening in July. We didn’t know it when we left for the hospital that day that he will never come home.”
Luckily for Nuala, it’s not a burden that she or her family has to bear alone. “We’re very lucky that we have brilliant neighbours,” she explains. “When we come home in the evenings, there would often be a bunch of flowers at the front door or fresh soup or a cake. There might even be a note on the door offering my Mum a lift into the hospital the next morning. Since my Dad was diagnosed, we’ve had over a hundred cards in the house: my Mum actually counted them up! These are people who would have worked with my Dad or are friends of my Mum and my friends, too. People have been very supportive to us. People in RTÉ too often text me to ask, are you OK, do you need any cover? People in the hospital have been so nice, too. Dad has been there for six months and we know all the nurses and the doctors and the catering staff!
“It has made the journey a little bit easier, knowing that we do have people around us. Over the summer, Dad went into intensive care on two occasions, and it was fifty-fifty.”
It’s obvious that Nuala is devoted to her Dad, so I wonder, what sort of a chap is he? “What type of chap is my Dad? For one thing, he’s RTÉ’s biggest fan!” she laughs. “For the past six months that’s all he’ll watch. When I ask him if he wants to flick around, he says, no, I’ll stick with RTÉ! Dad is from Lombardstown, just outside Mallow in Co Cork and he is a very proud Cork man. He was a very hard worker. He was a senior civil servant, going over and back to Brussels a lot. He’s very interested in Brexit and how it will all play out. After retiring, he loved his golf. One of the things I really like about him is that he doesn’t fill you with guff. My Dad is a good person, a very solid and steady person. He has just been unlucky, but life is like that for lots of families. Every day you have to get up and carry on. There was one day when I was off work that I took to the bed and cried, but that doesn’t make Dad’s journey any easier. It’s not about us at the moment. It is about him. We can take our time later on. Today, he is on a waiting list for the hospice and it’s our Christmas wish that he would get in there.”