Programme 4: Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh
Bláthnaid was born in Ontario, Canada in 1970. Her father had emigrated there to further his engineering career. Three years later the family returned home to Ráth Cairn, Co Meath, a Gaeltacht area only forty miles from Dublin where Bláthnaid nurtured her passionate appreciation of the Irish language.
Bláthnaid’s grá for Irish eventually paved the way to an unexpected career in television: In 1989, RTÉ put out the call for young female Gaelgóirs. Fresh from school, Bláthnaid joined RTÉ as one of the Scaoil Amach an Bobailín team. But a few months later she found herself out of a job. Not one to give up easily, Bláthnaid took every gig she could to keep her foot in RTÉ’s door.
Persistence paid off when Bláthnaid became one of the presenters on RTÉ’s landmark children’s show Echo Island. Life also took off personally when, in 1996, she married husband, Ciarán, and had their first child.
Bláthnaid was able to make the move into adult broadcasting when RTÉ produced Sin É: an Irish language current affairs show for TG4. In 2004 she began co-presenting The Afternoon Show with Anna Nolan and Sheana Keane.
In 2009 Bláthnaid suffered a health scare, lost her father and left The Afternoon Show. These days her presenting spans Entertainment, Religion and Irish language programming—the place where it all began.
Bláthnaid lives in Dublin with husband, Ciarán, and their four children.