With a mother from the Aran Islands and a father from the heart of Connemara, Síle Seoige grew up in Galway and she grew up “as Gaeilge”. At home in Spiddal where her parents settled, Síle had an idyllic childhood.
Summers were punctuated by trips to the bog, where her father would put a carton of milk down into the peat to chill. Safe keeping for bog tea to be made later.
With a smile, Síle admits that as the youngest of four, she got away with murder on these outings, a blind eye being turned to her artistically stacking turf at leisure.
At home, the family spoke both Irish and English; something that has served Síle well in her career as a presenter. She started out in TG4 before incorporating RTÉ into her portfolio. Síle’s mother was adamant that her children would be able to converse in English as well as Irish by the time they went to school.
Now residing near Dublin, Síle is emulating this bilingual element of family life with her two-year-old son Cathal and partner Damien.
“We make a real effort when it’s just the three of us at home to speak Irish,” explains Síle, who herself unknowingly throws in a focal as Gaeilge every now and then while speaking with you.
“Cathal speaks English because his childminder speaks English. He probably speaks more English words, but I’ll be able to have a conversation with him in Irish. It’s great, he’s intermixing, which is a very Connemara way of speaking anyway.”
And, although she now lives on the opposite side of the country, there is no denying that Síle is still a Galway girl at heart.
When the gaeilgeoir meets Irish Country Living at the beautiful Castletown House in Co Kildare, she is beaming at the thought of being a judge on Ladies’ Day at the Galway Races – that’s today if you are reading this on the day of publication!
Busy bee
However, the Galway girl can’t put up her feet post-race week. The rest of the summer is set to be a pretty busy time for Síle, as this September – at the age of 40 – she will celebrate 21-years in television.
On the Friday and Saturday of the Dublin Horse Show (9 and 10 August) she is MC at the Horse Play Hub.
The Horse Play Hub combines family and equestrian talks and events. This year, Síle will be interviewing the likes of equine therapist Joe Slattery to tie in with the introduction of a wellness element to the 2019 show.
This brief fits in pretty well with Síle overall as a person, considering her experience as a broadcaster and her keen interest in wellness.
Since her teenage years, Síle says she has looked at life from a slightly different perspective, especially in seeing herself as spiritual, but not in the conventional Catholic sense. She also very much believes in being in tune with Mother Nature.
“I have been exploring therapies and things like that for years, but it wasn’t until I got thyroid cancer at 32 that I had no choice but to examine things. There is nowhere to hide when something like an illness of that degree comes into your life,” Síle reflects.
“You can’t necessarily change it, but if you start to accept it and start to embrace that this is happening and look at the positive, then things can begin to shift.
“I found yoga was massively beneficial at a very practical level in my life. Yoga principles, yoga philosophy – it just gave me a great sense of things, I suppose, so I didn’t go into panic mode.”
Síle is now a trained yoga instructor and her interest in the whole area of wellness has only increased with time.
In the coming weeks she will add a further tick to her bucket list, as she launches her own podcast.
The presenter wants it to be wide reaching and a show where she can speak in a real way, both in sharing her own journey and chatting with people she admires.
Speaking up
Conversing with Síle is quite a calming experience. Although she is quick to point out that she is fiery by nature, she is also a very positive and strong person.
In February of this year, Síle bravely shared on her Instagram account that she had a miscarriage.
“Regardless of if you’re in the public eye or not, the more we start to have real conversations, the less lonely something like having a miscarriage can be. I have had people say to me, ‘I haven’t told anyone except my partner’.”
“I would have spoken about it at Beo (a wellness event organised by Aoibhín Garrihy).
"I remember one woman, it was heart breaking, she was there with her family and they didn’t know she had a miscarriage. She broke down in front of me,” Síle says,
“My heart broke for her. I don’t know if she did, but I really strongly, advised her, if she could find anyway at all, to open up to her family that it would probably help her.
“I hope she did, because it’s awful lonely and you have done nothing wrong. Nature has its own ideas about things and I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason, which then in turn gave me great comfort.
“As devastating as it was – and I’m not going to lie, it was devastating and there will probably always be a part of me that will feel it – but I’m also a believer that everything happens for its reason.
"We are really lucky we have Cathal and if we are meant to have more we will. That’s how I approach life.”
The Stena Line Dublin Horse Show takes place at the RDS, Dublin from 7 to 11 August. See www.dublinhorseshow.com for info and tickets.
Read more
Ploughing memories
Hector goes céilí
With a mother from the Aran Islands and a father from the heart of Connemara, Síle Seoige grew up in Galway and she grew up “as Gaeilge”. At home in Spiddal where her parents settled, Síle had an idyllic childhood.
Summers were punctuated by trips to the bog, where her father would put a carton of milk down into the peat to chill. Safe keeping for bog tea to be made later.
With a smile, Síle admits that as the youngest of four, she got away with murder on these outings, a blind eye being turned to her artistically stacking turf at leisure.
At home, the family spoke both Irish and English; something that has served Síle well in her career as a presenter. She started out in TG4 before incorporating RTÉ into her portfolio. Síle’s mother was adamant that her children would be able to converse in English as well as Irish by the time they went to school.
Now residing near Dublin, Síle is emulating this bilingual element of family life with her two-year-old son Cathal and partner Damien.
“We make a real effort when it’s just the three of us at home to speak Irish,” explains Síle, who herself unknowingly throws in a focal as Gaeilge every now and then while speaking with you.
“Cathal speaks English because his childminder speaks English. He probably speaks more English words, but I’ll be able to have a conversation with him in Irish. It’s great, he’s intermixing, which is a very Connemara way of speaking anyway.”
And, although she now lives on the opposite side of the country, there is no denying that Síle is still a Galway girl at heart.
When the gaeilgeoir meets Irish Country Living at the beautiful Castletown House in Co Kildare, she is beaming at the thought of being a judge on Ladies’ Day at the Galway Races – that’s today if you are reading this on the day of publication!
Busy bee
However, the Galway girl can’t put up her feet post-race week. The rest of the summer is set to be a pretty busy time for Síle, as this September – at the age of 40 – she will celebrate 21-years in television.
On the Friday and Saturday of the Dublin Horse Show (9 and 10 August) she is MC at the Horse Play Hub.
The Horse Play Hub combines family and equestrian talks and events. This year, Síle will be interviewing the likes of equine therapist Joe Slattery to tie in with the introduction of a wellness element to the 2019 show.
This brief fits in pretty well with Síle overall as a person, considering her experience as a broadcaster and her keen interest in wellness.
Since her teenage years, Síle says she has looked at life from a slightly different perspective, especially in seeing herself as spiritual, but not in the conventional Catholic sense. She also very much believes in being in tune with Mother Nature.
“I have been exploring therapies and things like that for years, but it wasn’t until I got thyroid cancer at 32 that I had no choice but to examine things. There is nowhere to hide when something like an illness of that degree comes into your life,” Síle reflects.
“You can’t necessarily change it, but if you start to accept it and start to embrace that this is happening and look at the positive, then things can begin to shift.
“I found yoga was massively beneficial at a very practical level in my life. Yoga principles, yoga philosophy – it just gave me a great sense of things, I suppose, so I didn’t go into panic mode.”
Síle is now a trained yoga instructor and her interest in the whole area of wellness has only increased with time.
In the coming weeks she will add a further tick to her bucket list, as she launches her own podcast.
The presenter wants it to be wide reaching and a show where she can speak in a real way, both in sharing her own journey and chatting with people she admires.
Speaking up
Conversing with Síle is quite a calming experience. Although she is quick to point out that she is fiery by nature, she is also a very positive and strong person.
In February of this year, Síle bravely shared on her Instagram account that she had a miscarriage.
“Regardless of if you’re in the public eye or not, the more we start to have real conversations, the less lonely something like having a miscarriage can be. I have had people say to me, ‘I haven’t told anyone except my partner’.”
“I would have spoken about it at Beo (a wellness event organised by Aoibhín Garrihy).
"I remember one woman, it was heart breaking, she was there with her family and they didn’t know she had a miscarriage. She broke down in front of me,” Síle says,
“My heart broke for her. I don’t know if she did, but I really strongly, advised her, if she could find anyway at all, to open up to her family that it would probably help her.
“I hope she did, because it’s awful lonely and you have done nothing wrong. Nature has its own ideas about things and I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason, which then in turn gave me great comfort.
“As devastating as it was – and I’m not going to lie, it was devastating and there will probably always be a part of me that will feel it – but I’m also a believer that everything happens for its reason.
"We are really lucky we have Cathal and if we are meant to have more we will. That’s how I approach life.”
The Stena Line Dublin Horse Show takes place at the RDS, Dublin from 7 to 11 August. See www.dublinhorseshow.com for info and tickets.
Read more
Ploughing memories
Hector goes céilí
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