Saturday with Derval O'Rourke: Work will always be there but my kids won’t always be at this stage

Derval O'Rourke. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

08.30

My son goes to rugby at 9.15am and my husband always brings him. Someone delivers me a cup of coffee in bed and I have a very luxurious start.

The only time I work on a Saturday is if athletics is live on television. About two years ago I decided to get structured about when I’m working. In another 10 years, my kids are probably not going to be at home watching a cute movie or popping in and out of the kitchen. Work will always be there but my kids won’t always be at this stage of their lives.

11.00

If GAA is happening locally, I might go to that and do a little bit of running coaching with the girls depending on their session or I might just walk our dog Holly.

The voluntary high performance coaching I support is usually done during the week when my kids are in school. The Saturday stuff is more grassroots at Leevale Athletic Club or Cork City AC. I also set up a little hurdles hub which is usually on a Friday. Saturday coaching is fluid and depends on what’s going on for my own kids which, on a Saturday is usually some combination of rugby, soccer, athletics, or GAA.

I have a busy house because I make sure it’s busy. I want my kids to be active, especially my daughter who is 11 and coming to that age where a lot of girls drop out of sport. I know how hands-on we have to be as parents — it’s about being a friendly face on the sideline, it’s about whether they had fun, not whether they scored a goal, it’s about the nuances around sport to keep kids enjoying being active.

13.00

We wrap up the sports stuff around 1pm. We nearly always eat at home because I love to cook. The kids might have pancakes and we might have a frittata. Sometimes I’ll make dinner for my parents. There’s something glorious about sitting down to a lovely dinner in the middle of the day — I’ll do a tasty chicken dish with fresh leaves followed by cake and coffee.

15.00

I’ll often do gardening jobs in the afternoon. I find it really relaxing.

I like to buy the paper on a Saturday — usually the Examiner because I love the property section. In the afternoon someone might call over for a coffee and a chat — friends, my parents or in-laws. If I wasn’t at home on a Saturday I’d love to be in Kenya. I was asked by the Irish Embassy to visit there for St. Brigid’s Day. While I was there I met Maria and Martin who run the Brighter Communities Worldwide charity — I went all the way to Kenya to meet a couple from Cobh.

Their charity works to support women’s health issues and children’s education, to help combat violence against women and on community initiatives around issues such as clean water. I could really see the impact that they are making through project-based initiatives. The culture and the work ethic of the women in Kenya is so impressive.

18.00

I’ll usually cook at home on a Saturday evening. I might make beef chilli with Blanco Nino nachos, lots of jalapenos, sour cream, and cheese — with a glass of wine, that’s my ideal Saturday night dinner. On a Saturday I don’t put myself under pressure about what my kids are eating — I try to make sure they’re eating properly the other six days of the week. Once a month we might get takeaway from the Lodge Bar & Kitchen. If we’re going out for dinner we’ll go there or to Cronin’s or The Anchor — we have three solid places nearby though we only go out for dinner once in a blue moon.

19.00

The kids will watch a movie and myself and my husband will sit on the couch in the kitchen and chat. The week is so busy that Saturday is when our family of four catch up and we don’t feel pressure to think about schedules or food shopping.

21.00

The kids head to bed at about 9pm - I will be in one room reading a book and Peter will be in the other and then we do the swap over so by then it’s 9.45pm.

21.45

I like to be in bed reading by 10pm. I usually have my Kindle, a pile of books, and the newspaper. I’ll read a variety of genres. I don’t usually like sports biographies [but] Conor Nyland’s The Racket and David Gillick’s The Race are really good and the biography of Ciara Mageean by Cliona Foley is phenomenal. My Greatest Race is devastating but warm and brilliant.

• Derval is the special guest at Brighter Communities Worldwide’s Kenya Ball on November 28 in the Radisson Blu, Little Island, Cork. Derval will share her experience of visiting Kenya this year as a guest of the Irish Embassy, when she first met Maria Kidney and Martin Ballantyne and learned about the charity’s work. Tickets available from brightercommunities.org