This much I know: Cathal Murray

I have two alarms set for 4.50am.

Your body gets used to the early mornings after a while.

I live just around the corner from RTÉ, so that helps get me to work on time for my show at 6am. I’ve always worked unsocial hours so I just get on with it.

I love my job and never feel like I have to achieve more of a work/life balance — this is it.

I’m not sure if I believe in fate. I don’t expect things to happen to me.

They just do.

I’m not religious but having said that, as a child I sang my heart out in a choir and was an altar boy. I’m definitely not an atheist. I don’t like to think we are just switched off like a computer when we die. It’s hard to think it all just turns black.

I do believe in making the best of your life and the people you meet along the way.

The trait I most admire in others is a sense of humour and I enjoy inquisitive people.

I’ve had to face quite a few challenges but the biggest was when my dad died. I was 23 and it was at a period in my life when I was really drifting.

He placed huge importance on education and that drove me on to seek success.

My earliest memory is of seeing a road covered by trees with the sun setting outside. I only found out a few years ago that it was probably when I was lying in the back of our car after it broke down in the middle of nowhere in Mayo when I was about six months old.

I may not always have the best diet in the world but I’m pretty fit — I have run marathons and I play squash.

In my spare time, I listen to a lot of music. Even when I’m running, which I like to do to clear out the cobwebs.

It’s a huge privilege to be working at the national broadcaster although it’s daunting to think of the amount of people listening in. If you aren’t feeling nervous, or at least slightly apprehensive, I believe you will perform more poorly. But then I do fall into the worry camp. I’m a terrible worrier.

After school, I went to UCC to do science and accountancy, which wasn’t for me, but thankfully I joined the drama society and discovered a life-long love of everything to do with theatre and performance.

I drifted a lot in my twenties until I got it together enough to land a job in Midlands Radio. Someone said I had a good voice so I ended up reading the news, learning on the job, which included reading the agricultural reports, although I’d never set foot in a mart, and reading the death notices three times a day.

I read out that the undertaker had died once by mistake, and he complained. Now that I think about it, that was towards the end of my tenure.

When I’m on the Continent I’m always struck by how the generations seem to mix more than they do here. It’s great to see three generations of families enjoying days out together, or to see different generations socialising in bars and so on. I wish it was more like that in Ireland, I don’t like the way the ages are segregated here.

If I could change one thing in our society, I’d do something about hospital waiting lists. It makes me really angry to hear about elderly people sitting and waiting for hours on end.

I firmly believe that you reap what you sow. So far, life has taught me that you get out what put in. Just sitting around waiting for stuff to fall into your lap isn’t going to work.

If I wasn’t doing this job — I’d probably be applying for it.

Tune in to RTÉ Radio 1 for The Weekend on One with Cathal Murray, Saturday and Sunday mornings between 6am and 8am.