TV and radio star Mairead Ronan has revealed it was her mother’s dying wish she follow her dreams in TV and radio.
The Today FM host was a 20-year-old college dropout – working full-time at Arnotts – when her mother got sick with cancer.
The Finglas native gave up her job to nurse her mother – who gave her daughter advice that would change her life.
“My mam said to me ‘What is it that you really want to do?’ And I said that I’d like to work in radio or TV and she said ‘Ok, let’s get you on that course’.”
Her mother died on April 2, 2001 – the day before Mairead’s 21st birthday.
And the Dancing with the Stars winner revealed to the RTE Guide this week she got her acceptance letter from Ballyfermot College on the day of her mother’s funeral.
Mairead admits to being ‘very pracical’ in the aftermath of her mother’s death.
“The main thing was that she was not in pain anymore. It was as simple as that for me in the two years after.
“But my Mam was only 60 years old when she died and should still be with us. In my mid-20s, I really struggled with the loss.
“I realised ‘sh*t – I don’t have a mam and she is never coming back”.’
“I turned 21 the day after she died and I didn’t celebrate my birthday for years afterwards,” said the mother-of-three, who dropped a whopping three stone while training for DWTS, from the birth of her daughter Bonnie until the grand final in March.
But it was only when the mother-of-three became a mum that the grief hit her.
After getting married at 24, she had her first child Dara two years later.
“It was only then I realised how much my mam loved me. Now when Dara says to me ‘I love you Mam’ I tell him ‘You’ve no idea how much I love you’.
“I had no idea how much my Mam loved me until I had my own children”.
Mairead also told how her divorce from her first husband was “was even tougher than losing my Mam”.
But in 2011 – while nursing a raging hangover following a Republic of Telly wrap party – she met businessman Louis Ronan at a Today FM singles event.
“I don’t remember how Louis looked or anything he said.”
Three weeks later she was out on the town with her sister Olga and the pair ran into Ronan again.
“He invited me to a gig that night, which I thought was really cheeky,” she said of the man she married in 2015.
Now she’s approaching 40 and getting ready to front her own lunchtime show, Mairead Ronan, on Today FM.
And unlike her 21st, this is one birthday she can’t wait to celebrate.
“I will absolutely celebrate my 40th especially as I didn’t celebrate my birthday for so long. I like to celebrate things in life now.”
