This much I know: Orla Barry, Broadcaster

I am always working. My biggest fault is that I never seem to switch off.

Sat, 05 Mar, 2016 - 00:00

In conversation with Hilary Fennell

I’m a disaster at separating work and personal time, work is constantly bubbling away.

I’m not naturally organised but have become more so because you have to be when you are juggling so many balls.

Meditation is the only thing that has helped with that. I tend to meditate in the evening.

I’m up at 5am but as I’m a natural owl, not a lark, that’s taken some getting used to. I set two alarm clocks.

Sometimes, going into studio to do a two-hour radio show is a kind of meditation for me, being able to shut out everything else.

I grew up in Bishopstown in Cork.

I was a chatty child, I suppose I was a bit brazen.

One of my brothers recently joked that I was sent to school when I was barely four because I talked so much.

Mam was a radio addict and still is. We had six radios in the house, one going in every room, and she was obsessed by the news. But I had no early plans to work in radio.

When I left school I studied languages, Spanish and German, thinking I’d travel the world.

I fell into presenting. I was producing a morning show in Radio Kerry when they were stuck for an afternoon presenter and the station manager asked me to do it.

I was reluctant at first but found that it came naturally. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t nervous at all, but after a while it didn’t phase me.

I’ve begun working for the BBC World Service and the first time I was asked to present on air there I definitely felt nervous when I thought of the 96 million listeners, as opposed to the audience I’ve been used to on Newstalk.

It’s hard not to be conscious of growing older. I know I’m much happier now than I was in my 20s. I’m more comfortable in myself and know who I am.

The more successful people I meet, like film stars and famous musicians, the more surprised I am to discover how many of them have an underlying insecurity.

The best advice I ever got was from my father when I started out in radio and was worried about how I came across. He told me to simply be myself.

My main skill is being able to listen to people.

A presenter has to be able to sit back and let the guest speak, but also be able to guide the interview, but to make it sound as if you are having a conversation.

My idea of misery is working in a hospital. My idea of bliss is having a day off all to myself where I have no demands, no work, that lovely sense of having no deadlines.

I live in London a lot now and I love pottering around, going to art galleries and the theatre when I’m free.

I have a ukulele. If only I practised.

The main exercise I get is going up and down the stairs in tube stations.

I used to do some dance but I’m on the road so much I don’t have a set routine to fit in things like that.

If I could change one thing about Irish society, I’d like people to be more positive.

We are hard on ourselves and each other and a bit moanie and prone to see the negative.

My biggest challenge has been keeping a sense of self belief when things have gone wrong at work, and my dad’s passing in 2008 which I overcame by immersing myself in work.

My greatest fear is not having the mental capacity to do what I do.

If I could be someone else for a day, I’d like to be the president of Syria and to reverse everything he has done over the last few years.

What kind of mind is able to look at the devastation he has caused, evicting people from their own country? I’d like to see what kind of person could do that.

So far life has taught me that you have got to try to slow down and enjoy the moment because it all goes so very fast and before you know it another five years have gone by.