At home with Martina O'Donoghue

Martina O’Donoghue lives in a compact three bedroom semi in Ballincollig, about six miles from Cork City and a mere three miles from her job at Red FM.
“I’m originally from West Cork,” she explains, “So I live in what I see as the ‘right’ side of the city. I can get back to Bantry easily and I can get to work and into the centre of the city very easily. The neighbourhood is settled and quiet and the house is generally fairly quiet except when I’m playing CDs.”
O'Donoghue has lived here for two years. In that time she’s made the house her own by putting in an alarm system and a new garage door.
She also has a converted attic, which she had originally designated as a work room. “I have a computer there, but I tend not to use the attic that much. It tends to be too cold in winter and too hot in the summer.” It’s also where she stores quite a bit of stuff she hasn’t got around to unpacking yet, including many old CDs
But why move here in the first place? “I was drawn to the house because it wasn’t totally new. It was built in the ‘80s. I think an older house has more character than a brand new one. In a way the area is turning into a little village. We were promised a shopping centre and a by-pass, and we got them.”
She doesn’t keep pets, partly, she claims, “because I don’t think I’d be a good mom and a pet could be neglected. I wouldn’t mind having a dog or better still, a cat, but maybe I will one day when I can look after one properly.”
When the quiet is interrupted by CDs it’s often connected with her work. “I review CDs for the Red FM website. Sometimes I’ll listen while I’m doing the ironing. I’m happy to work at home. I enjoy my work,” she says.
Martina keeps a ghettoblaster in the kitchen; in her sitting room she has a speaker system with three CD decks and cassette facilities.
And that strange smell? It’s from the vanilla flavoured candles she burns. Her sizeable record collection contains an admirable sprinkling of Abba and David Bowie, although artists from earlier decades seem to be represented by compilations. She happily describes herself as a “rock chick”, with a particular liking for ‘80s rock. But what’s this? True Ballads by Tony Hadley? Explain yourself! She laughs. “I must have got that when he was on that tv programme Reborn in The USA!” She redeems herself with Tom Baxter’s Feather And Stone. “When it came out first I hadn’t heard of him, and people told me he was the new David Gray. This didn’t quite enthuse me, but it was a slow week for new albums and when I listened to it I found I really liked it.”
The favourite item in her house is, thankfully, not the Tony Hadley album but her kitchen table.
“It belonged to my late grandmother. It used to be in her kitchen with a tablecloth over it, but when I got it I had it steeped in a vat of acid and I like the raw used look of it. In fact, it could do with another sanding.”
Yet the one item Martina would risk her life to rescue from the burning house is her collection of personal photographs.
“I have big shelves on each side of the fireplace, and that’s where I keep all my photos. I’ve been taking photos for about 17 years and keeping them in my albums. I always take photographs to chronicle the main events in my life, weddings, parties, holidays and so in. My life is in those photos.”
Those same bookshelves contain lots of books too. “I read a lot of crime novels, like Michael Connelly. The most recent book I read was Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon. I’m good at finishing a book once I start it”, she says.
One thing Martina does seem to struggle with is tidiness: “It’s my new year’s resolution every year. Sometimes I have to really chastise myself about it, because it does get me at times.”
Apart from her diet of CDs she also indulges in DVDs, and has copies of Live Aid and Live8 in her collection. “They’re both fabulous. I got them as Christmas presents. But I also rent movies, like Cinema Paradiso, and I also watch a fair bit of telly, mainly stuff like Desperate Housewives and the soaps. I don’t watch much sport unless it’s Cork in an All-Ireland or something like that.” As for radio, she tends not to listen in the house. “I like to get away from it at home,” Martina confesses.
Nor will you find games such as Monopoly or chess. “We used to have lots of games at home when I was growing up, but I’m fairly busy with my music and books and tv, so I don’t feel the need for them. I think there’s a pack of playing cards somewhere around, but I can’t remember when they were last used,” she tells me.
Being situated so close to Cork she’s got a wide range of pubs, restaurant sad venues near at hand. But somehow you suspect that Martina is a homebird at heart. “Yeah, I often meet friends in the city for a night out. But there are other times when I just go home and stay home. I think I’m very happy with my work and content with my own company.”