Caitriona Perry is enjoying her front seat on history in Trump's America
For this year’s Oscars award ceremony, just a few weeks ago, viewers watched Caitriona Perry, reporting live from the red carpet in LA, dressed in a glittering silver creation loaned to her by New York-based Irish designer Don O’Neill.
For many young journalism students watching, it must seem like the most plum job going. What they don’t know is Caitriona had woken at 5am that day for hair and make-up appointments, donned her gorgeous silver gúna and remained in said gúna until 2am the following morning, when her reporting commitments finally ended.
You won’t, however, hear any complaints from RTÉ’s Washington correspondent. I chatted with her the night before she was due to fly out to LA and asked was she looking forward to the red carpet and the glamour.
She rightly pointed out that, unlike all the movies stars and nominees, she wouldn’t be chauffeured to the event or get to enjoy the after-show parties and her commitments wouldn’t end until the early hours of the morning.
Nevertheless, she was really looking forward to it and, listening to her reports on the fiasco of the wrong film being called in the Best Picture category, she clearly relished informing a bleary Irish audience waking up to the highlights of this year’s Oscars.
I had been scheduled to chat to Caitriona at 2.30pm that day. Yet, another tumultuous day at President Trump’s White House and her RTÉ news commitments meant she had to delay our interview until 9.30pm. Also, she had yet to start getting ready for her West Coast trip the next day.
“To be honest, I’ll be swapping one sort of crazy for another,” she laughed.
But Caitriona is a young woman living her dream — 5am starts, 2am finishes, long distance flights, 20-hour days, there will be no gripes or grumbles from her. “This is what I signed up for,” she says. “I’m very aware of how privileged I am.”
That’s because Caitriona was that young journalism student who always had the Washington gig in her sights. A native of Knocklyon in Dublin, she graduated from Dublin City University with a BA in journalism in 2002. She started her career in the radio station Newstalk before moving to Today FM .
She’s now coming up to her 10th anniversary with the national broadcaster, having joined RTÉ in May 2007.
She immediately set up about getting the skillset needed to become Washington correspondent. As a student, she’d become adept at self-shooting and editing, but she had put it to the test when she covered the tragic case of the rape and murder of Irish woman Jill Meagher in Melbourne, in 2012.
While down under, she filmed and edited a series of reports on Irish immigrants. She also filmed a half-hour programme for Nationwide, but knew technical skills weren’t all that was required, so she decided to return to DCU to study for a masters degree in international relations.
“It’s a subject that always fascinated me. I’ve always loved politics and this masters covered US foreign policy, EU policy, Iraq, and the Middle East. It’s a qualification that’s proved invaluable during my time here in Washington.”
When I remark how impressive her preparation and perseverance was, she explains she was vying with very talented colleagues. “Washington correspondent is the plum gig, it’s a very competitive field and I was up against equally good colleagues.”
Caitriona achieved her dream and arrived in the US as RTÉ’s Washington corr in February 2013.
“But rather than a baptism of fire, it turned out to be a baptism of ice! It was all very surreal. I arrived in February and they were in the middle of a really cold snap. There were eight inches of snow and temperatures of -10 degrees.”
Confined to her hotel room, once the temperatures rose, she ventured outside to search for an apartment.
“Then it was a case of living out of boxes, because all the apartments here are unfurnished, so I had to wait for all my furniture to be shipped over from Ireland,” she says.
“There was a realisation that I had left behind a very comfortable life with family, friends and my routines,” she remembers. “But to be honest, I really didn’t have much time to think about it as I literally had to jump straight in. On a work level, it was very exciting. I was in the thick of it straight away.”
Caitriona has now visited 35 American states and is aiming to get to 50 before she leaves the US.
Just a few months ago, she reported from the Texan/Mexico border — the proposed site of President Trump’s infamous wall. “There’s already a fence there,” she recounts. “It was very dramatic, I really got to see what the implications are for building that wall.”
Other highlights in her four years in America so far, include standing on a rooftop overlooking the White House on election night last year.
“That really was a pinch me moment,” she describes. “It was a dream come through for me.” And as it turned out, it was the start of Donald Trump’s
presidency, which has meant even less time off for Caitriona.
Interestingly she’s not as incredulous of his victory as many of us are in Europe. “The Trump victory isn’t that unbelievable. Whole swathes of people here are very enthusiastic about him. And he’s now doing everything he pledged during his campaign. They weren’t empty promises. He is following through. People in urban areas are deeply traumatized by having Donald Trump as president but there are lots of people who are very happy and that has to be respected.”
But she cannot get over how divided the US now is as a country.
“In Ireland, there are really only a few degrees of separation in terms of party policy but in America, it’s much more black and white,” she believes.
She admits Washington and the White House press corps in particular are deeply shocked by President Trump’s first few weeks in power.
“A free press is part of a civil society and you speak the truth,” she explains. “It is very surreal not being told the truth in such a formal environment. You can accept people make mistakes but there is a sustained pattern there. You can’t take anything as accepted fact. So the need for journalism comes into play more than ever.”
Of course, the other big story is the stand on immigrants. My delayed interview with Caitriona was because she was reporting on the increased powers given to immigration and customs enforcement agents.
There are reports of agents waiting outside churches, going into courts and even getting on planes to seek out the undocumented and deport them.
Caitriona has met and interviewed several undocumented Irish and says there is a real fear amongst them now.
“I’ve met with people with no paperwork and they’re very worried. They’ve always lived with one foot in the shadows but it’s far worse now. Immigration officers have been given extra resources and there have been raids on several areas.
“Before, if you were stopped for a minor traffic incident and the cop was called McDonagh, whose own family came here as immigrants, a blind eye was turned. But now people are very nervous.”
Bearing in mind how many Americans once called themselves immigrants, Caitriona points out that 30m people in the US claim Irish heritage.
“I’m very proud of being Irish in the US,” she maintains. “In the big urban centres, people are well aware of what it means. But once you travel outside of the big cities, it can be different. Quite often, I will be the first Irish born person some people have ever met and many Americans think Ireland is still part of the UK.”
But as far as her work in Washington is concerned, she believes being Irish gives her a distinct advantage. “It’s a big leg up, and other journalistic colleagues are quite jealous as it opens a lot of doors.”
She’s settled into life in Washington and has a close circle of friends.
“It’s easy to make friends in Washington as a lot of people aren’t from here and are passing through like me.”
And it sounds like she has a good social life going, particularly with what she describes as her new summer addiction — paddle boarding. “I’ve always been very sporty . I played hockey both as a child and an adult and I love swimming and running.”
Paddle boarding, her latest sporting endeavour, involves standing on a board and paddling down river.
“A big gang of us go paddle boarding on the Potomac river in Washington,” she explains. “It’s a great activity during the hot summers here.
“The only problem is the Potomac isn’t the cleanest river in the world,” she laughs, “so apart from trying to stay on your paddleboard, this provides an added incentive not to fall in! Then we all head out for brunch afterwards.”
It sounds like an interesting and fulfilled life and Caitriona is aware of grabbing the downtime when it comes as it’s coming increasingly less.
“It has been non-stop,” she admits. “I keep waiting for a quiet week but I haven’t had one for a while.” Most of the time she’s a one-woman operation and she films and edits her own reports.
Needless to say, she does all of her own hair and makeup for her reports, apart from big events like the Oscars.
“I gave up on long hair with all the wind and rain,” she laughs. “There’s nothing that can’t be fixed if you have a bob and a hair straightener.”
She admits working as a one-woman band can be isolating with just a part-time cameraman, no editor and no producer.
And then there are the long days. The time zone difference means she works a full day on American time but then needs to be available for Morning Ireland.
But once again, you’ll hear no complaints from Caitriona.
“It’s what I signed up for,” she repeats. “There are seismic changes in the US. It’s the biggest story in the world and I have a front seat for history.”
