My Childhood with Mary Kennedy: ‘We had no money but we had fabulous times’

The television broadcaster on her idyllic childhood, in Clondalkin, Dublin, and how as a shy child without a 'posh accent', she never imagined she would end up working in TV

Mary Kennedy in Connemara. 

Mary Kennedy has three siblings yet considers herself one of seven. That’s because the TV presenter grew up in a house in Clondalkin that was right next door to her mother’s sister’s family.

“There were four of us, me — the eldest — John, Deirdre and Tony; and three of them, William, Brian and Barry,” she says. “There was a stile in the back garden and we were constantly in and out of each other’s houses. It felt like we were all one family.”