Culture That Made Me: Cork radio presenter Ciara Revins on Gladiator, The Den, and Picture This
Ciara Revins can be heard on Red FM, and seen on RTÉ's The Today Show.
Ciara Revins grew up in Glanmire, Cork. In her student days, she did campus radio at University College Cork.
She has worked with several regional radio stations, including Radio Kerry, SPIN South West and Clare FM.
In 2017, she joined Cork’s 96fm as a reporter and Cork’s Red FM as a presenter a year later.
She began co-hosting The Today Show on RTÉ television last year. She presents the early afternoon radio show on Cork’s Red FM.
I loved kids TV as a child and teenager. I was gripped watching presenters like Sinéad Kennedy – who did a Saturday morning programme from Cork, and who I now get to work with on The Today Show – Cat Deeley, Ant & Dec and Ray D’Arcy. I loved their energy and the craic they had talking to people. I wanted to be on The Den – Dustin the Turkey up to no good, doing the flap flaps, and the questions himself and Zig & Zag threw at people they wouldn't expect. A soft puppet can say anything!
My favourite film is Gladiator. I'm an emotional person. I was willing Russell Crowe's character on. I felt his vengeance, his anger. He drew you in. The scene where he's walking through the corn, imagining his wife and his child, and they’re saying, “Go to them.” That’s never going to leave me! It's definitely one of my most quoted lines, and it doesn't fit in anywhere really: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius ... Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” It's just magnificent.
There will never be a year I miss going to panto at the Opera House in Cork. I always went when I was a child, and now, too, as an adult. Nanny Nellie every year is a Christmas tradition for me. The performers always get everybody involved. Everyone's up for the craic. The kids have a gala. You know they're making core memories. All the cast go above and beyond to make that happen for people – the production, the rehearsals that go into it. It's amazing. The Opera House for panto is something special.
Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman In Me was fascinating. I grew up listening to Britney, following her career, hearing different parts of her story, but obviously she wasn't able to tell it for so long because her dad controlled her career; she had no free will – she couldn’t make her own decisions. She was unable to leave the house at certain points, and how plagued she was by the press. So to read all her story – or listen to it in an audiobook – was incredible.
I'm a massive Picture This fan. I was lucky enough to see them in Crane Lane before Christmas. They were filming a TV series. Crane Lane is a well-known music venue in Cork, but it's small, with probably only a few hundred people at the gig, but they performed to that crowd as if they were on a stadium stage.
They chose to come back to Crane Lane as it’s one of the first venues where a crowd got on board with them, which set them on their journey. So to see them come back a few years later, playing songs from their albums, in such an intimate venue, was massive. I’m now obsessed! They’re amazing.
Claudia Winkleman is incredible. She presented Strictly for years. On The Traitors, she’s class – her expressions, her timing. I enjoy the diversity of what she’s able to do on the show. Sometimes you see presenters that are younger or social media stars whereas she’s somebody who has crafted her skill and ability. She's witty. She can be serious. She lands what she's asking and creates amazing television.
I saw Ed Sheeran in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. It was one of the first big gigs after Covid so to have everybody back in a stadium, in an iconic place for a Cork person, with the Lee on one side of you, was amazing. He put the stage in the centre of the stadium – it was on a track so it was moving as he was performing. He had fireworks and graphics to go with it. It was such an experience – his energy. It was the first gig I brought my daughter to. We knew all of the songs. To be in a stadium in your hometown with that many people belting it out was magic.
Seeing Westlife at Páirc Uí Chaoimh was class. It was like the biggest karaoke I have ever been to. It was Westlife’s greatest hits. Whoever was at that gig was there for a good time. They knew all the words. There was no shame in it. Every man, woman and child was fully invested in it. I went to see them as well in Boston this year which was amazing. I got it as a gift for my fiancé. It was a tiny venue – with maybe 5,000 – in Fenway Park. It was so cool.
I saw The Phantom of the Opera in New York, my first experience of a Broadway show, in 2012. I was totally immersed in it, taken in by the story and music. The actors were gifted. The songs are intense. Whenever you hear The Phantom of the Opera opening, it would stop you in your tracks. Getting to sit in a theatre full of people and experience that is fabulous. It left a lasting impression.
The podcast I listen to most is The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. He’s interviewed Simon Cowell, Molly May. He’s talked to people about relationships and why things aren't working out. He's a great listener. He asks questions maybe you didn't think of. When I finish listening to it, I feel like my mind is richer. I can take something away from it that might better my life. Where are you putting your energy? What do you want to achieve? Being answerable to yourself.
We’re a rugby family. My dad is the Ireland masseur. He works for Munster as well. My best rugby memories are probably Munster days. I remember the year when they had a massive homecoming, the first time they won the Heineken Cup in 2006 – the team going through Limerick city on the open-top bus was amazing, especially when my dad was involved, and having been at the home games in Thomond Park that season. I have a memory, too, of Munster playing Biarritz in the semi-final in San Sebastian. I remember going to a restaurant there and ordering asparagus as a starter. It came out and it was huge and it was white. I was traumatised!
