YOU PROBABLY HEARD about it.
RTE’s western reporter Teresa Mannion took the viral world by storm last weekend after what can only be described as a heroic news report from the promenade in Salthill, Galway as Storm Desmond raged.
And speaking to the Ray D’Arcy Show on RTE Radio just now, Teresa seems to be taking the life of an internet superstar in her stride.
“Ah lord, I’ve got 3,000 new people following me on Twitter, it has just been a mad experience, unreal,” she said.
And thankfully there have been very few negative responses.
Teresa described the now infamous report, in which she bellowed for people to stay safe and not to make “unnecessary journeys”, as “probably the most physically challenging report I’ve done in 25 years as a humble hack”.
I’m like some mad woman on the prom. You have to understand the rain was absolutely bucketing down, it was literally like someone was throwing a bucket of water over me.
The intrepid reporter was at pains to stress that she hadn’t described people swimming in the sea during the storm as idiots.
“I didn’t call them idiots, I would never do that, Galway County Council described their actions as idiotic, that’s all I was saying,” she said.
But her new-found fame seems to have come as a very pleasant surprise.
“I was at the River Moy in Ballina on Sunday evening and a group of teenagers, who wouldn’t be part of my core audience, were so excited to see me,” she said.
And they wanted to take selfies. I must have posed for 100 selfies in Ballina.
My teenage nephews are really rocking this, they’re all happy to say they’re related to me now.
Teresa was also happy to put rumours that she had been hit on the head by a stop sign, the comedic work of Ger Walsh (below), to bed.
My sister who works in a bank was in touch, she was worried that something happened to me, that I’d been hit by a stop sign on the head.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Perhaps the biggest revelation of the interview was that Teresa herself was actually born during a hurricane. 1961′s Hurricane Debbie to be precise.
“It is true, I was born in a hurricane,” she said.
And the question now is, will a storm be named after Teresa (we think we can all agree that a storm SHOULD be named after her)?
“My husband told me that I can’t have one named after me, because they go alphabetically and we’re only at ‘D’.”
Not that she seems too bothered.
I love it, I just love it. It’s all so funny.
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