Anne has hosted Nationwide since 2012 and feels ‘very, very lucky’ for the stories she has been given the chance to tell during her successful and varied career at RTÉ
Anne Cassin for RSVP Magazine(Image: Kieran Harnett)
Anne Cassin feels “very, very lucky” for her broadcasting career but admits she was once left “devastated” after missing out on a hosting gig.
The TV star is best known for hosting Nationwide but has had a successful and varied career in RTÉ for over 35 years.
And while there have been so many highlights along the way, there have been some setbacks, too – but Anne understands that is the nature of the business.
“I remember going for the Eurovision hosting gig in 1993,” she told RSVP Magazine.
“Looking back, I think my big mistake was wearing a trouser suit to the audition. How mad was that, for an audition? [laughs].
“Fionnuala Sweeney got it in the end. At the time I was devastated, but the best woman got the job.”
Anne added: “I’m sure there would have been other job setbacks, but nothing that caused me to curl up in bitterness. Sometimes you get hired for a job and get let go.
“I did Crimecall for five years which was quite an achievement, but then I got dropped, but that’s television recycling itself and staying fresh.
“I remember not feeling great about that, but I got over it.”
Keeping Nationwide on air and making fresh content every week during the Covid pandemic is a career highlight Anne is particularly proud of.
She said: “I think that was a social function that we achieved. We pivoted, and we kept giving the audience new content during severe lockdowns and I’m very proud of the fact Nationwide had a role in that.
“We really were public service broadcasting during that time for the public who pay the licence fee. We suddenly did a lot of stories about biodiversity and being outdoors!
“Everything was outside, two metres apart, interviewing people in their back gardens at a distance.
“Those moments seem like they never happened, but they did. It was very challenging, but I’m very proud of that.”
The viewing figures for Nationwide are very consistent, which Anne says feels validating.
“There is still a big audience that watches terrestrial television,” she told us.
“It is holding its own against other platforms. You won’t get anything like Nationwide on the likes of Netflix.
“You won’t get that hyper local story, which is why local newspapers still have a home in print media.
“That’s why people still come back to RTÉ because they like seeing stories that reflect Irish life, whether that’s on Nationwide, Fair City, Dancing With The Stars… we like to see ourselves reflected on television.”
Lots of stories Anne has reported on on Nationwide have stuck with her over the years.
“There are programmes that can catch a certain mood,” the presenter said.
“We did one on Michael Murphy which was very nice, and I once did a lovely programme about Ballybunion. You meet great characters along the way.
“I remember meeting a man called Tom Delaney, a basket maker from Mayo. He was great craic.
“There was a lovely girl Orla Byrne I did a story with. She was living with breast cancer and I became quite friendly with her.
“She sadly died. I find I come back to that story a lot because it was meaningful. She was young with a great attitude, but was just struck with this awful illness.
“A lot of stories are professional – you arrive, do the interview, get the shots and leave. And then sometimes you go into someone’s house, get their life story and fast track a connection.
“Most of the time it’s quite professional, you do the interview and move on, but sometimes you make a deeper connection along the way and that’s always gratifying.
“The thing with me is I love Ireland, it’s such a beautiful country with fantastic people.”
The broadcasting industry can be quite fickle, but Anne doesn’t worry about job security.
She said: “No. I’m coming to the end of my career.
“I’m not retiring or anything like that, but I’m so lucky and so grateful that I’m fit and healthy.
“We lost a colleague Niall Martin recently, who was working on Nationwide; he died in January. That was a real wakeup call to all of us.
“I am really grateful that I can do what I do, that I had the fitness and health to do Dancing With The Stars and I hope to go forward and continue to work to the same degree that I always have.
“Work has always been very important to me, but not as important as my family.”
Read the full interview with Anne Cassin in the March issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves nationwide now.
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