Roz Purcell: "From living in other cities all over the world, the difference with Dublin is you never feel alone"

There are early starts, and then there are 4.30am starts – and when Roz Purcell landed the coveted RTÉ 2FM Breakfast slot earlier this year, she had to quickly become accustomed to the latter.

“I love it,” she tells me, fresh from her Best Of Dublin cover shoot, and with a busy day’s work already behind her by noon. “It’s obviously super early to be waking up, but to come home and be like, ‘God, I spent the first three hours of my day laughing…’ That’s all you can ask for.

“Also, I’m one of those people who, if I have something to do later on in the day, I can’t do anything before it. I hate just waiting around for things. So I love just getting up, going in and doing it.”

But with a career as multifaceted as hers, Roz doesn’t quite get to kick back in front of the telly after she and co-hosts Carl Mullan and Aisling Bonner sign off for the day. In addition to her radio work, the Tipperary-raised, Dublin-based broadcaster is kept busy as one of the country’s most popular content creators, and the mastermind behind the social media-driven hiking community and book series The Hike Life – with a following of 610,000 on her own Instagram page, and a further 229,000 on @thehikelife.

Roz Purcell. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

It’s the latest evolution in what’s been a remarkable career to date for the 35-year-old – having previously found success as a model, a former Miss Universe Ireland, a best-selling cookery writer, and a presenter across television and radio.

Although the hard graft she puts in is undeniable (“The bags under my eyes are definitely developing at a worrying rate,” she laughs), Roz finds that, when it comes to her career, luck and adaptability have been just as crucial.

“My timing has been impeccable,” she points out. “I modelled at a time when models were being booked so heavily in Dublin, and wherever else I modelled. Then I transitioned to doing cookbooks and influencing when that was just about to take off – and at that time in modelling, no one was getting booked as much as they had been. So I just seemed to transition at the right time.”

She’s also well aware of how quickly things can change in the notoriously fast-paced world of radio.

“I look at radio like, ‘I’m in here for however long, and I’m going to make it as enjoyable as possible – and when they decide I’m gone, it will have been a good run,’” she says. “And that’s just me – because I’ve shifted to so many different things. It’s nice knowing that radio isn’t the only thing that I do.

“Right now, I’m really enjoying this and I’d love it to last a long time,” she continues. “And we’ll see if it does. But if you’re just worried about something ending, then you’re not enjoying it in the moment – and it might end quicker!”

EXPLORING AND RAMBLING

Away from radio, Roz is continuing to build a real, long-lasting sense of community around The Hike Life, both on and offline. From free events, courses and workshops, to social media clips about hike ideas and safety tips, she’s played a key role in helping people connect with the outdoors, some for the very first time.

“I actually got a message last night off this woman,” Roz tells me. “And she was saying, ‘Just want to let you know, I’d never hiked before, until your page inspired me to start getting out in the outdoors, and enjoying it. I got to the top of Kilimanjaro this week, so thank you so much.’ I just thought that was mad!”

Roz’s own connection with hiking stretches back to childhood, growing up at the foot of Slievenamon.

“We always hiked – we just never called it hiking,” she recalls. “We’d just be off exploring and rambling. From a young age, we were allowed to go off by ourselves, so I’ve always been really comfortable being in the woods by myself, and going off the trail. I didn’t realise that’s actually a skill in itself, to be quite comfortable in that.

“I started sharing about my adventures, wherever I was going off at the weekend, back in 2018,” she adds. “And I remember I just went, ‘#thehikelife’. But I have to say, with The Hike Life, nothing was thought out. I honestly just go with the flow – and I’m so lucky that going with the flow has worked out!”

The Hike Life books – including 2023’s 50 Favourite Hikes In Ireland and 2024’s 50 More To Explore – have been best-sellers, with the first in the series winning Lifestyle Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Does Roz have plans to continue the series?

“I did two back-to-back, which was very intense,” she reflects. “It took so long to get those photos – I was sleeping in my car for nights on end. Shooting in the summer months, you’d be up a mountain for sunset at half-ten, and then you’d be back down for 1am. I’d just be like, ‘I’m going to sleep in my car, because I’m going back up another mountain in two hours, for sunrise at 4am!’

“Or you’d do these long drives up to Donegal or down to West Cork, for five or six hours – just to be sitting there in a cloud. Like, ‘Cool, I’m just going to have to come back and do this again…’ But it made me so patient – it was like some form of exposure therapy for me!”

Of course, that movement of younger people reconnecting with the Irish landscape has also coincided with a wider revival of interest in our country’s culture, language and history.

“I actually went and did a ten-week Irish course over the summer,” Roz nods. “I was never good at Irish in school, and I always blamed it on the fact that, when I was growing up, people were like, ‘Should we even have it as a subject?’ After taking the course, I can actually say I’m just really shit at it – and I’ve no one else to blame!

“But I’m still really inspired to try to learn more,” she continues. “And I think that comes with this current wave of artists, like Fontaines D.C., KNEECAP, and even CMAT having Irish in her ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ song. There’s just so many artists and actors who are really flying the flag across the globe for what it means to be Irish.”

History, she says, was always one of her favourite subjects – so she’s always been very tuned into those deep ties between “our history and the landscape.”

“And folklore and legends,” she resumes. “That’s probably why I love travelling across Ireland, and hiking to go and see these places. It’s really nice to see that there’s been such a boost in people being proud to be Irish – in a way that’s about learning about our history and our culture, and welcoming other people in.”

IS IT A TOUPÉE OR NOT?

Looking back, did she always find herself caught between that love for the outdoors, and the more glamorous side of her work?

“Because I grew up in Tipperary, on a farm, in the middle of nowhere, I actually craved being in cities,” she recalls. “I used to watch America’s Next Top Model growing up, so I craved all of that. Then I did live in New York for a while, and obviously moved to Dublin, and was doing fashion shoots and stuff… And after a few years, I craved the reverse. I craved what my upbringing was like.

“So I suppose I have reversed myself,” she continues. “I’m very lucky I have the best of both worlds. And I do shoots and all that glamorous side so irregularly now, it’s actually enjoyable!”

Of course, social media is still an integral part of the various sides of Roz’s work. Having been on Instagram for the better part of 15 years, she, like many others, has found that her relationship with the platform has shifted over time.

“I’m aware of not giving too much of myself away – because I did, for a while,” she reflects. “When you’re almost too personal, and you show people everything about yourself, then there’s a blurred line around expectations, and what you might owe people.

“I look at social media now as a side to what’s going on in my real life,” she adds. “I’m living my life and doing fun stuff – and just putting it on there. I’m not doing things for social media. That’s where you’re going to have a weird relationship with it. I used to get really caught up in numbers as well, whereas now I try not to.”

Over the past few years, it’s also been important to Roz to use that online platform to speak out about issues that matter, such as the genocide in Gaza. She’s been a notable supporter of Uisce For Gaza, a project delivering clean water to the Palestinian people.

“Uisce for Gaza are such a fantastic organisation,” she says. “What I concentrated on was donating and raising funds – that was my main thing. Obviously sharing is also really good, and I shared whenever I came across something that made me feel like, ‘This is going to encourage someone else to share something.’

“But at the end of the day you still feel pretty helpless,” she continues. “Obviously there’s a ceasefire right now – and who knows how long it’s going to last – but the fact this has gone on for two years is horrific. It really makes you sad for the world we’re living in. People were literally live-streaming what was happening – the fact that some people chose to ignore it is shocking.”

Although she couldn’t have known it at the time, Roz had her own personal brush with global politics back in 2010, when she was barely out of her teens – with future US president Donald Trump, who co-owned Miss Universe at the time, signing her to his New York-based Trump Models agency after she competed in the pageant. For her, it feels like a lifetime ago – and she feels “like a different person.”

Roz Purcell. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

“Going over there, I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, Donald Trump is the head of Miss Universe,’” she reflects. “It was just like, ‘Oh, there’s your man from The Apprentice’. He was just the character who went, ‘You’re fired!’ And that was really it.

“It’s so strange now to see that he’s the president of the United States – and obviously every half-an-hour there’s a news story about him on our show,” she continues. “So it’s one of those things I’m kind of embarrassed about, like, ‘Yeah, I met him before…’ But no one had a crystal ball to see how things were going to pan out.

“Sometimes people are like, ‘What was it like?’ And I tell that I went over with one mission – and that was, ‘Is his hair real?’ I remember meeting him, looking at the top of the hair, being like, ‘Is it a toupée or not?’ That was my only concern then.”

And?

“A comb over. That’s my conclusion. Which I think is quite obvious now…”

IN ANOTHER LITTLE WORLD

Roz remembers Miss Universe as “a very intense experience”, which nonetheless played a major role in shaping the woman she is today.

“You’re competing against 98 other women,” she elaborates. “Growing up, coming from an all-girls school, I always felt women needed to be in competition with one another. There was that mentality, that there was only room for one or two women in certain places. That was the ‘00s.

“So I think I came out of that experience – maybe not straight away, but in the next two or three years – realising that I actually don’t like being competitive with other women,” she continues. “It doesn’t sit well with me, and I don’t enjoy it.”

There were of course other life skills gained, she points out – like how to “walk in a bikini, in giant heels, down a set of stairs.”

“Anytime I go off to do something scary, I’m like, ‘I did that. That’s way worse,’” she laughs. “I could’ve slipped and become a YouTube sensation, but I didn’t!

“I look back at photos from when I did Miss Universe, and I don’t even remember that person,” she continues. “I did that at such a young age – and I don’t think I have that confidence anymore, at all. I feel with age, that’s been knocked out of me a little bit. Also, after that experience I went into years of modelling, and that would knock confidence out of you!”

Roz has been open over the years about her own insecurities and body image issues, including her experiences with eating disorders when she was modelling, and her journey with alopecia. But looking back now on her transition from modelling to a successful media career, she claims her one “superpower” might be the fact she’s never truly worried about “how people perceive me.”

“People used to always say, ‘When you get to your 30s, you stop caring,’” she says. “But I really don’t think I ever cared that much.

“I just don’t think I’m really into people!” she laughs. “And it’s not because I don’t care about other people – I just don’t feel the need to be around people. I much prefer being off alone on a mountain, with my dogs. I enjoy going to work with people who are great craic, but I feel like I’m constantly in another little world. I think if I started caring how people perceive me, it would be a very time-consuming headspace to be in…”

CHANCING YOUR ARM

Having initially moved up to Dublin just before turning 18, to attend UCD, Roz tells me that she’s always felt a special connection to the city.

“I’ve lived in lots of different parts of Dublin since,” she says. “I lived for ten years in the city centre, which was amazing. I’m a bit of a dry shite, so I didn’t really make as much out of it as I could’ve – but that’s just me! I still get this warm feeling walking up South William Street, or through Temple Bar, because I used to always hang around there. It’s different now, but the same in some ways. I’ll go into a coffee shop, they’ll be like, ‘Hey, haven’t seen you in ages!’

“From living in other cities all over the world, the difference with Dublin is you never feel alone,” she adds. “You could live in a city in America, or anywhere else in Europe – and they’re so busy, but you still feel so alone. You just don’t get that in Dublin, because people are just really friendly.”

So what’s Roz’s dream day-out in Dublin?

“I’d go for breakfast in The Pepper Pot in the Powerscourt Town Centre,” she begins. “I love The Pepper Pot – I always think it’s great for people-watching. Then I’d go to LOOT Vintage. I don’t really buy too much stuff, but I buy a lot of second-hand stuff, and LOOT is so good. I’d also go by Kaph to get a nice coffee.”

She likes to squeeze in a tour or two when she’s in town also.

“St Patrick’s Cathedral is one of my favourite tours in Dublin. It’s actually where the phrase ‘chancing your arm’ came from. Gerald FitzGerald cut a square out of the back door of the church, and put his arm through, chancing that the Butlers, who the FitzGeralds were at war with, wouldn’t cut it off. He was ‘chancing his arm’ at peace. And they still have the actual door hanging up there.

"I also love Marsh’s Library beside it. I love a good old-school library. There’s a lot of history there, and ghosts, supposedly – I’m into spooky stuff! 14 Henrietta Street is another tour I tell everyone to do. It’s so interesting.”

And her top lunch/dinner spots?

“For lunch, I love The Fumbally,” she resumes. “I’m a long-time fan. It’s definitely my vibe – such a nice mix of food. When I’m in town I’ll always grab pizza as well. I love Doom Slice. And for dinner, allta is really, really good. If I was booking to go out with friends, I’d always go for allta. It has a really nice mix of food, and everything is made so well. I also love Uno Mas. I know everyone says that, but it is delicious!”

Finally – Roz’s ultimate Co. Dublin walk?

“I could say places like Ticknock, or the Scalp viewing point... But I don’t think you can beat Howth,” Roz reckons. “The Bog of Frogs Loop is probably the one you’re going to get the most views with. And there’s great swimming spots, and a beautiful secret pool, along the cliffs.”

• Listen to Roz Purcell on 2FM Breakfast weekdays from 6-9am – and follow her on Instagram at @rozannapurcell and @thehikelife. The Hike Life: 50 More To Explore is out now.

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