Just saying
Thelma Mansfield lives between Spiddal and Dublin. An artist who exhibits her work on Merrion Square, she was the presenter of ‘Live at 3’ on RTÉ for over a decade. She has two sons with her late husband, the photographer
John Morris.
As children, we spent time in Kerry, Ballymacthomas, my mum’s part of the world. That’s where I first went to school. It was just beautiful, rural, a wildflower meadow in the back garden, a donkey and a pony.
I’m the eldest of three. It was a brilliant home to grow up in. Mum just loved having the fire lit for us when we came down for breakfast in the morning. Three beautiful meals a day. She loved cooking and baking. At weekends dad would pack us into the car and we’d be off to whatever river we were going to fish.
I wasn’t wild, but I sort of did get into trouble. I’m an extrovert. Extroverts don’t get on with Loreto nuns. I was always in trouble. Back then, it was the school for young ladies. You bowed at the nuns. The nuns were dreadful.
I was told by mum that I was to go in to do an audition in RTÉ. She wanted me to gain a bit of confidence. RTÉ had advertised auditions for the newest continuity announcer, and I didn’t know what it was for. They weren’t expecting me to get it, because I was going back to boarding school. I was only 16.
My dad’s death was a terrible shock. He died very young, at 46. He was a stationer in his latter years. He was a gorgeous father, lovely, so humorous. I wasn’t long in RTÉ, not a year. I was basically the breadwinner. I didn’t realise RTÉ were going to stop my £10 salary the week I was out for the funeral. That was a bit of a shock.
RTÉ was like a little family at the beginning, which was lovely.
We did horse-riding together one weekend, and then we might do motor sport, tennis, swimming. We used to play competitions in England. A lot of the girls who joined RTÉ happened to be from Loreto Foxrock. ‘Roll it there’ Colette [Kavanagh] was Loreto Foxrock. She was one of the most wonderful people.
I was really exploited for my age. I worked every weekend for 13 years because I was young. Every Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day. That was difficult. When I started, I wasn’t allowed go to coffee shops, to dances: I was the face of the station. I remember going to a dance in Belvedere or one of those rugby clubs, and no one asked me up to dance. It was awful. They were intimidated by me because I was well known.
I met my husband through a mutual friend. Johnny [John Morris, photographer and son of
Lady and Lord Killanin of Spiddal] and I never stopped talking for the entire hour-and-a-half. I knew instantly, when I heard him talk; he had the most beautiful voice. Everything he was interested in, I was interested in. Johnny was a great fisherman, he loved shooting, he loved wildlife. He played me Van Morrison, I had never heard him before. He played If I Ever Needed Someone. He meant that for me; I thought he meant Jesus. We played that at his funeral. He was an absolute gent. Everybody loved him. His two sons adore him.
I can’t tell you what Derek Davis used to do before we would go on air, I’d be barred for life from society. It did involve a cucumber and two aubergines. We always had cooking on the show and just as we were about to speak on air, [Live at 3 co-presenter] Derek would pick them up from the table... Mary Kennedy and myself, how we didn’t explode on air I don’t know. He was an exceedingly nice man. Great fun. He was polite, generous in nature, very bright, hilariously funny. We had dinner together not long before he died. He was so charming and caring.
I had to look at my talents and ask what talents do I have? I’m a good actress. Nobody knows that, but I know myself that would have been a talent that I have. I knew that painting was what I adored before I joined RTÉ. I was a noisy child. Sometimes there would be complete silence in the house and my parents would get worried. There I’d be at the drawing room table, drawing or painting. Totally and utterly absorbed, very content.
Johnny was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just as I retired from RTÉ. It meant the plan we’d had for our life in the future wasn’t to happen. But I made it happen as best as I possibly could, because I just devoted myself to looking after John. I wasn’t a martyr or anything. I did it because I loved him. It’s what you do naturally. It was a tough 20 years. That’s life. You just don’t know what’s around the corner.
Thelma Mansfield is taking part in Incognito, Ireland’s biggest online art sale. In aid of the Jack and
Jill Children’s Foundation, every postcard-size artwork costs €65. The collection goes live on April 4, with the sale on April 24. incognito.ie
As told to Liadán Hynes