Meeting Lottie Ryan, she is just as energetic as she was 10 hours earlier, when Irish Country Living switched on the radio at 6am and heard her waking up the nation on 2FM’s Breakfast Republic. At 4pm she has already been up for 12 hours and is bright and bubbly as ever; you won’t hear a single complaint from her end.

“It’s an early start, but do you know what? It’s bloody awesome. I love it, I get to work with Bernard, Keith and Jen, three of the funniest people I’ve ever come across in my entire life. I’m literally walking into a comedy show every morning. It’s really hard not to love getting up early.”

Lottie is in her early 30s and married her long-term love Fabio Aprile earlier this year. The Dubliner is no stranger to broadcast media, having worked in a number of roles prior to moving to 2FM, including a stint in New York working in television and as an entertainment reporter on The Daily Show with Claire Byrne and Dáithí O Sé.

She has been with 2FM for six years and currently presents the first hour of Breakfast Republic, from 6am to 7am, solo; features throughout the rest of the show and reads the hourly entertainment news until 1pm.

Her success working in the media can definitely be attributed to hard graft. However, it cannot be denied that presenting is in her genes. After all, she got the gift of the gab from her late father, renowned RTÉ presenter Gerry Ryan.

Shoe Box Appeal

This year Lottie has joined up with Team Hope as an ambassador for the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal. She explains that the Shoe Box Appeal is a cause she is more than happy to champion, as it not only gives a gift to children who may otherwise get nothing at Christmas, but starkly shows young people living in Ireland how privileged they are in a global sense.

The radio presenter explains that she has very fond memories of taking part in the Shoe Box Appeal as a child, and growing up it was a huge part of Christmas in her school and with her family.

Lottie highlights that this year Team Hope is encouraging people to throw packing parties, to make taking part in the appeal a little bit easier.

“Get your mates around. If you feel you haven’t got enough to fill a shoe box then maybe your friend has loads and you can help each other out. Make an evening of it.

“I suppose we were inadvertently doing our own packing parties in my family, because we pooled all our items together. The boys mightn’t know what to put into a girl’s one and vice versa,” she says.

“The Shoe Box Appeal is almost an institution in itself, you don’t need it explained to you, and that is an amazing achievement for Team Hope: to have instilled that in people. Just make it something you do every year. Make it a tradition with your family or with your mates.”

RTÉ

As Lottie speaks about her childhood Christmas memories, Irish Country Living cannot help but ask her what it was like hanging out in RTÉ as a child. She has been acquainted with the Donnybrook studios from a young age, tagging along with her father, and admitted once on air, in her trademark laugh-out-loud style, that she used to rob CDs from 2FM as a child.

The radio presenter feels that RTÉ (2FM especially) is experiencing a rebirth and says it is a very exciting time to work there.

“I used to rob CDs – that was a long time ago. It’s a different generation now, there is a rebirth happening in 2FM at the moment, but obviously I sit opposite Larry Gogan: he transcends. There are the old, the new and everybody mixing together. There’s definitely a sense of rebirth at the moment. It is a very exciting time in there.”

Work ethic

The interview is all but over and Lottie is still not tiring, having now been up nearly 13 hours. She attributes her strong work ethic and exuberance to the influence of her father.

“He is a huge influence on everything I do. He passed away before my career took off, but his work ethic and ethos on life influence me on a daily basis,” she says.

“I mean, I watched someone getting up every morning for my whole life, who sprung out the door, delighted to go to work. I was always very conscious of enjoying what I did and being happy in the morning.

“Hard work was just something that I witnessed, and you just assume this is the normality. He is a huge influence: he moulded us. If there is a 100th of him in me, I will be very blessed and lucky.” CL