My So-Called Life… Mairead Farrell Sets the Record Straight

I know that old saying; ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the papers’. 

Yet, even though I work in the industry, I still don’t really take that saying on board. I want to open a newspaper, read it, and believe what I’ve seen. OK, within reason …

That was until two weeks ago, when I sat down with a Sunday paper and a cup of tea. Flicking through, I saw a half decent picture of myself. ‘Oh’, I thought, ‘What’s this about?’

It was almost half a page about me, what car I drive and where I spend most of my free time. 

Let me tell you, this was big news to me. I didn’t recognize the person I was reading about, and that person was me.

So, apparently, I’m driving a ‘top of the range’ MINI Huntsman… I didn’t know there was such a model?

It said I’ve been ‘seen zipping in an out of Today FM offices… The car is very flash and cost Mairead over forty thousand euro'. 

Whoo hoo! I want to read on.

It goes on; ‘The Finglas girl is also spending all of her time in the plush D4 area where her toyboy lives’.  So being from Finglas must mean I’m hugely impressed by postal codes?

So now to the truth…

I hate to disappoint anyone who thinks I’m living a ‘rock n’ roll’ lifestyle, but I drive a very reliable 2005 red Ford Focus hatchback. It’s got a fair few dodgy looking scrapes along the left side, because someone obviously parked too close and never left their details. But other than that, she’s a grand car.

I have driven this car since 2006. I have never owned a flashy MINI. So where did the mini story come from? I had the pleasure of driving one for three days back in February of this year.

It’s a long story why – but the short version is I loaned my car to a very good friend who had to fly home from Asia with her new baby. She had an awful lot to do while here so I gave her my car and had her insured in it. Then a very nice man from MINI loaned me a car from his garage for the same time…. 

Back to the papers, and the ‘fact’ that I’m spending all my time in D4?

I live in Glasnevin, which is Dublin 11. Finglas is five minutes away and is also Dublin 11. I have lived in Glasnevin for the last 10 years, my son goes to school there, my father lives five minutes away and so too do both of my sisters.

So ALL of my time is spent there. Just so you know…

 

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