Broadcaster Kathryn Thomas will present her Dublin radio show from her hotel bed in Tralee this week while co-hosting the annual Rose of Tralee festival.
The Q102 presenter will host her morning broadcast in a dressing gown alongside co-host Dáithí Ó Sé and festival contestants, taking inspiration from late British television presenter Paula Yates.
Rather than taking the week off from her Q102 breakfast show, Thomas will broadcast live from the Meadowlands Hotel on tomorrow and Tuesday morning. She will then turn her attention to her co-hosting duties at the Rose of Tralee International Festival on tomorrow and Tuesday evening.
"We'll do it from the bed in the Meadowlands," Thomas told the Irish Mail on Sunday. "So it's me in my dressing gown, Dáithí getting into bed with me, the Roses getting into bed with me. So it's all a bit Paula Yates."
Paula Yates, the late ex-wife of Irish campaigner Bob Geldof, famously conducted interviews from a bed during the 1990s on the Channel 4 television show The Big Breakfast.
Thomas promised radio listeners the inside track and gossip on all the goings-on in Tralee. She noted that this year's lineup of Rose contestants forms a particularly tight-knit group without traditional regional cliques.
"I've only done it for four years, but sometimes you'll get a group where maybe the American girls tend to stick together, or some of them will kind of really gel with the Irish or the UAE girls or whatever," Thomas said. "But there was this real sense when I was with them that it was a real gang."
Contestant Atmosphere and Festival Gossip
The broadcaster admitted there has been a lot of shouting, singing and slagging among this year's contestants.
"There was a lot of slagging. A lot of slagging of me, a lot of slagging of Dáithí, which of course we love, and there just seems to be a good old craic vibe with this gang," Thomas said. "So let's hope they're all still talking to each other by the time they get to Tralee."
When asked whether behind-the-scenes drama was common among the contestants, Thomas insisted there was no backstage conflict or romance to report.
"I've never heard of any tears, regrets, unrequited love with the escorts... I wish there was a bit more drama from that perspective, but no, nothing that I can put my finger on, honestly," Thomas said.
Family Festival Plans in Kerry
The presenter and fitness influencer will bring her daughters, aged four and eight, down to the festival for the first time, though they will watch the event on television.
"The youngest one would cause absolute consternation if the oldest got to go and she didn't," Thomas said. "So I'll wait till next year when the two of them are actually both able to sit there together and sit through it, even for the first half. But they watch it at home and they love it."
Following her festival hosting duties, the family will spend the rest of the week, which Thomas has booked off, with her Kerry-born mother in Kenmare.
Broadcasting Career and Freelance Mindset
In addition to hosting three hours every weekday morning on radio, Thomas hosts the podcast Are We There Yet? and runs fitness retreats through her company, Pure Results.
She also regularly presents documentaries, usually for Irish broadcaster RTÉ, despite never being on the permanent books of the national broadcaster.
"I've had a freelancer's brain since I was 19 years of age. I have never known where the work is coming from. I have never known security. I've never known permanent pensionable work," Thomas said. "So I've always loved giving every job you do 100 per cent for the time that you're doing it, always looking out to see what's coming up next, seeing what's changing in the world."
Asked if she would be tempted by a staff job and a radio slot at RTÉ, Thomas said she prefers the variety of her current schedule and her role as a mother.
"Maybe the older I get, I'll want to take on less," Thomas said. "But right now I love the variation with all the bits and bobs that I do, and one of the main jobs that I love is being a mother. I absolutely love it, and it kind of came for me quite late in life, and it's my ultimate dream job. I'm really proud of the girls that my kids are becoming."
Thomas added that she would have no qualms about encouraging her daughters to enter the Rose of Tralee in the future.
"Anything that instills confidence and supports women, I'm all about it, and that's exactly what the Rose of Tralee does," she said.
Festival Broadcast Schedule
The Rose of Tralee International Festival airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player tomorrow and Tuesday from 8pm.
