RTÉ newscaster Eileen Dunne has confessed she is glad her son Cormac managed to move to Barcelona at Christmas although it was hard to say goodbye to him.
He made the move with his girlfriend after graduating college and Eileen, who lives in Dublin with her husband, Ros na Rún actor Macdara Ó Fátharta, said the couple are having a better time in Spain than they would have over here due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“Cormac did his finals online and graduated online and all of that and that was fantastic. That got him through the first lockdown and kept him focused but he hadn’t applied for any of the accounting firms or anything like that because he had always intended to travel,” she said.
“When things were open again after Christmas they just decided to do it and they got out before it tightened too much.”
Eileen was speaking to Woman's Way and continued: “I’m glad in a way because they’re gainfully employed and they’re having a nice time in Spain.
“They’re having a nicer time over there than they would have been here in January, February and March.”
Due to her husband’s filming commitments with Ros na Rún in the west of Ireland and Cormac’s departure Eileen spent a lot of the most recent lockdown alone, however she didn’t find it too difficult and took advantage of the cultural offerings available online.
She added: “Because they were both away, I was actually on my own for quite a bit of the last lockdown.
“The Little Museum of Dublin, and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, were brilliant and were really the front runners in organising virtual events.
“Then everyone started doing it and you could see concerts with people like Jonas Kaufmann and Renée Fleming filmed in stunning locations. Tickets were about $20 where you’d usually pay hundreds to see these people live.”
