Woman of many talents – and voices – Hayley Ryan relishing breakthrough season with Cork
Hayley Ryan, far left, with her Cork teammates. Pic: James Lawlor/Inpho
Galway footballer, Seán Fitzgerald is all the rage at present with his impact on the latest season of Love Island, but when the reality TV programme was in its fifth season in 2019, it was Maura Higgins and her colourful turn of phrase that had the nation in thrall.
Another young woman not actually living in the infamous villa in Mallorca also made a splash that time.
Hayley Ryan began posting videos of her impressions of the various contestants, male and female, and to say they took off is a significant understatement.
One quick internet search will disclose the nationwide coverage her mimicry received, in terms of print and online reaction.
The young Douglas talent hit the local airwaves and exhibited her broad range beyond that show. Her Joe Brolly is magnificent. That exposure earned her a gig as a radio host on Cork station, Red FM.
Meanwhile, she became a teacher, and the craic with the impersonations has always been mighty in the PE and Gaelainn classes at Youghal’s Pobalscoil na Tríonóide.
It has been the same in a variety of Cork camogie dressing room’s over the years.
The Blackrock attacker has represented the county at U16, minor and intermediate level, before winning two Glen Dimplex All-Ireland medals as part of the senior panel. Now, after taking a year out, she has now established herself as a regular starter.
This is someone with so many strings that another bow would be welcome.
Eventually, she was beginning to strain at the seams so the radio gig had to be relinquished, but after last year’s sabbatical from the Cork set-up, Ryan accepted an invite to do some analysis for renowned Gaelic games streaming service Clubber and that is a role that has evolved in the meantime.
Now, with the conclusion of the school year, the 28-year-old is taking a career break from teaching to take up an internship in RTÉ’s sports department.
“It’s all go at the moment,” Ryan concedes. “I’m still up at Dublin midweek and coming down at weekends but I’m going to try sort something out midweek. I’m a busy woman at the minute, but in fairness to the management, they have been extremely understanding and so supportive.
“I’m training up here in Dublin and when I go down at the weekend but over the next few weeks, I must balance my schedule and try get down to train during the week.
“I’m diving more into the media stuff, and taking a career break next year. It’s all go but such is life. It’s good to be busy and I like being busy.” Clearly, that media engagement seven years ago provided the opening window.
“I haven’t put up a video in a while,” she says now. “I know Love Island is on at the moment but would you believe, I haven’t had time to watch yet? But after a few weeks watching it, I would get the voices.
“That time, it just blew up. I wasn’t expecting that at all. But that was the start of it.
“I could always do different accents and in my last few years of secondary school, I’d be doing them, maybe the odd teacher I might take off. I won’t mention any names! And I’d have people laughing and sure that was great.
“Even on the Cork camogie U16 bus, you’d be doing it. I remember one year, I was down the back of the bus, and we were taking off coaches, and I was taking off people in Geordie Shore, which I shouldn’t have been watching at the time. I was wayyyy too young to be watching that kind of telly. That’s, I think, when I realised I could do it.”
Ryan is one of a number of newcomers to the Rebels line-up as the likes of Laura Treacy, the Mackey twins and Hannah Looney have stepped away, while injury has sidelined Ashling Thompson and inhibited the first half of the season for the likes of Amy O’Connor and Saoirse McCarthy.
After a stuttering Spring, Manley’s crew got this year’s championship campaign off to the perfect start with last Saturday’s comprehensive victory over Galway, the team that ended their three-in-a-row bid in last year’s All-Ireland final.
While a sixth consecutive appearance in the decider is a long way away, and Tipperary will provide a stern examination at FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday (throw-in 3.30pm, live on Camogie Association’s YouTube channel), it was a tremendous boost.
“I’m actually delighted. We won the All-Ireland in ’23 and ’24 and then I decided last year that I wanted to do a bit of travelling. I suppose I wanted more game time too and I felt, in terms of my camogie, I would be better giving time to my club.
“When Ger rang me at the beginning of this year, I said, ‘If I’m going to do it, I’m going to give it everything,’ and he’s been excellent. I have gotten a lot of game time, so I’m very grateful.
“Obviously, we were over the moon to get the win against Galway. I think regardless of who we were playing, a win was very, very important for us, because, we did have a very tough league campaign, and the Munster campaign didn’t go the way we wanted to go. So the outside noise with all of that was that Cork were gone away.
“We actually never listened to that, because there’s always talent in Cork. We are blessed that camogie is huge in Cork, and the talent is there. What it was, was, it was just a panel of very talented players that had never played together. So like anything, if you’ve a very smart student and they just sit a test, they’re not going to ace the test, but let them do a bit of study, and then they’ll do better in the test.
“So we needed that league, and we needed that Munster campaign to have those losses and take the learnings. You learn an awful lot from a loss.
“And look, we’re far from deluded. It was one game but we are just delighted to get the win. Confidence-wise, it is huge for us, we just needed that, and that will stand to us, but we are far from the finished product, my God almighty… We’ve an awful lot of work to do, but we’ve had a lot of knocks this year, and I think we needed that bit of positivity, that little bit of reassurance.”
Having former Cork hurling manager – and Pobalscoil principal – Donal O’Grady joining Manley, Gemma O’Connor and the rest of the backroom staff in an advisory role has been a key element of their progression.
“He’s great on analysis. He loves the questions, the open-ended questions. He’s very good and a lovely man.” Fortunately, despite the many aspects of her life that require pieces of her attention, Ryan is well able to compartmentalise. So on Sunday, it will be all about Tipp.
“They are a whole different kettle of fish this year again, they’re Munster champions and we have to go into Semple Stadium, though that is something for us to look forward to. It should be another huge challenge.”
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