Meet Nationwide presenter Anne Cassin

Anne Cassin admits that her children never watch her on TV. “They’re kind of a bit mortified,” laughs the Nationwide presenter, simple but elegant in a white top and jeans, as we chat over coffee and scones with clotted cream and jam after a photo shoot on a rare sunny day. Not that Anne takes their nonchalance to heart. After all, as she explains to Irish Country Living, it was only years later that she appreciated her own upbringing on a mixed farm in north county Dublin, and in particular what a role model her late mother, Nancy, was.

The eldest of three girls, Nancy inherited the family farm in Balbriggan in her early 20s after the death of her father, followed by the loss of her mother. While she later married Anne’s father, the actor Barry Cassin, it was Nancy who ran the farm while raising her family of five.

“She was the one who was talking to the cattle dealer and negotiating prices,” says Anne.

“Looking back, I’m very impressed by it, but as a youngster I was very embarrassed because my mum didn’t do ‘normal’ things. It’s just the way kids are – you want to conform.

Memories of farm life

“My mother would frequently come into school dressed in her Wellington boots and her farming gear, and you’d be brought off to farm machinery places or to look at cattle and I would find this tedious beyond words; other mammies were baking cakes. But, looking back, it was a great childhood to have.”

The farm today is run by Anne’s brother, Andrew (“Great spuds in north county Dublin,” she quips), but that rural upbringing still resonates with Anne in her role with Nationwide, which she has co-presented with Mary Kennedy since 2012.

The job was a “great fit” after a variety of jobs in RTÉ, including working as a continuity announcer and a newscaster, presenting Crimecall for five years and fronting Capital D, which she found out was being axed in the same conversation that she got the Nationwide gig.

“Programmes have a shelf life,” she says. “The trick, if you can, is to stay relevant or to reinvent yourself along the way.”

She believes the key to Nationwide’s long success is that it provides a real “slice of life” and is one of the few places nowadays where communities can get primetime exposure.

Bringing the best out of people

As well as presenting, Anne sources many of the stories and travels the highroads and byroads (though admits she always has to factor in getting-lost time and has become a dab hand at doing her makeup in the car park before filming), but sees her main role as bringing the best out of the people she interviews – not having the spotlight on herself.

“So listening is really important,” she says. “I think at this stage, I’m a good listener. That’s not the way presenters are usually viewed, but with Nationwide, it’s about the people who are worth talking to.”

With three programmes a week, 51 weeks a year, however, it can take its toll, especially on family life. Married to RTÉ colleague Donagh McGrath, who works in news, the couple have three children: Ellen (16), Joe (14) and Heather (10).

“They want you home,” says Anne. “Their world is – rightly so – absolutely concerned with them. They want you there in the morning, there in the evening and don’t really like you staying away, so I try if I’m travelling to go really early in the morning or really late at night, so it’s minimum impact. It is impactful, but it’s what I do at the same time.”

Switching off

One of the ways that Anne switches off is by running, which she took up a few years ago having given up sport at 15.

“I used to run around two laps of the park near where we live and I’d be absolutely stuffed. And that went on for a long time. But now I manage it a bit better,” she says, explaining that she regularly takes part in her local Park Run and has participated in races, including a half-marathon. She finds running benefits her mentally as much as physically.

“I do it for my head – to clear my head,” she says. “I can resolve stuff.”

She’s keen to emphasise, however, that her running is “nothing special”, and life away from the cameras is similarly low-key. She holidays with her family on the Dingle Peninsula, enjoys reading (most recently, A Song For Issy Bradley by Carys Bray), likes period dramas like Wolf Hall, is a bit of a news-junkie and, of course, is a regular visitor home in Balbriggan, where her father – unlike the kids – definitely does tune in to Nationwide, as well as delivering the odd piece of constructive feedback.

“He said: ‘Only once did you get it wrong on the clothes front,’” she laughs. “I didn’t ask the follow-up question.”

Watch Nationwide every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7pm on RTÉ One.