Who is Ciara Revins? Meet the presenter jumping into the Today show hosting hot seat

Ciara Revins is the bright, not-so-new face in The Today Show hot seat alongside Daithi Ó’Sé and smashing her first mainstream hosting gig, judging by the reaction from viewers.

If you don’t immediately recognise Ciara’s her voice will likely ring a bell especially if you’re from Cork.

Before she changed from studio to set she was a well-established feature on the RedFM Breakfast show with Rob Heffernan and Laura O’Mahony.

But how did she get to where she is, is she seeing anyone? Here’s everything you need to know about Ciara Revins.

Ciara Revins. Pic: Supplied

Early life

Ciara is a Cork woman through and through and has no plans to ditch her accent any time soon and rightly so!

Rugby is very much in her veins, her father is a massage therapist with Munster and Ireland and the sport is something she and her other half Mark have bonded over but media is her first love.

‘When I would have been doing my guidance counsellor choices at about 16, 17, it would have been like “what do you want to do?” [and I’d reply] I want to be a presenter, that’s what I want to do so that was always the goal.

I did a weekend TV presenter course and that was not so normal then. I left for college in London when I was 19, I did two years over there studying journalism, I did a course in Cork, I did campus radio at UCC so straight from the off I was into media.’

Start in the industry

‘I started out then working in West Limerick 102 and Radio Kerry and one of my bigger breaks then would have been when I moved out west starting up and I join the team there from the start.

‘I was kind of news editor doing breakfast news and feeding into the Breakfast Show over five years,

‘From there I went to Star FM and then I went on drive for a few years and then I came back to Cork, worked as a reporter. There was a TV station called Irish TV and I used to do a programme called Limerick County Matters over about two years so they were my first proper bits of TV and then on to RedFM.’

‘It was a full circle moment for Ciara who had already interned at the station and had always wanted to work there.

‘Red was the place I was sending my demo to and RTÉ was the place I was sending my showreels to because RTÉ used to have these competitions where they were looking for kids TV presenters or different things. ‘

Ciara Revins. Pic: Supplied

The dream team

‘I worked with Ray Foley on The Breakfast Show and then when he left myself and Rob and Laura took over.

‘I’ve been having an absolute blast there and… it’s unbelievable, like we have a ball.’

While they might be having a ball on the airwaves, Ciara admits that it was nerve wracking to front a new show.

‘Launching a new show was hard. It’s an established market. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for all of us we’re three very proud Cork people… I certainly feel like I’ve hit the jackpot with them because they’re just fabulous.

‘And like just we get up at a really crazy ridiculous hour but we get to go on air between six and nine on weekday mornings and just have fun and be very Cork!’

The dream opportunity

‘I’ve been part of The Today Show since 2020 so they have different segments on the show, one of them is the news panel.

‘I started doing that for them, I’ve been doing it for a couple of years and then in October they asked me to do Dear Dilemma with Noel Cunningham [and] the two of us absolutely hit it off and people loved the feature.’

‘People were sending in their dilemmas and sometimes we’d agree, sometimes we wouldn’t but we just bounced off each other. It was fabulous.

‘So the dilemma became a weekly feature on the show and we’d done that right across the season on The Today Show and I’ve gotten to know them so well and everyone has always been so supportive.

‘A situation arose this week where I suppose they needed somebody to co-host the show, Sinead was broadcasting from Clare so I got the chance to sit in the hot seat.’ I had an absolute ball they made it so easy for me, everyone went above and beyond to make it such an enjoyable experience. It was just tremendous like it was a joy. ‘

For me, I really wanted to go out there and give it a good crack and do it justice, I knew it was a big responsibility filling in the seat… and I try to not let the nerves get the better of me so I just wanted to go out there and make the most of it. ‘

Ciara Revins. Pic: Supplied

Her relationship with boyfriend Mark

‘We matched in an absolutely normal way, I’m not sure if it happens anymore. We were both on separate work nights out. He was out with his colleagues and I was with RedFM.

‘I thought [online dating] was the way you had to go now and that you had to be on apps and I only dabbled in them briefly and I didn’t like it, it didn’t feel organic, and we actually both love how we met because it was such a genuine, “oh my God, look at that person” [moment] but our relationship is new enough in that we only met in September.

‘I think we’re like just both very understanding and supportive like he plays a lot of rugby and we have very similar interests, we’re into fitness and going out for food.

‘I really think it is about, finding your joy and finding ways to make it happen so that you do strike the balance, like this free time that we have. We make the most of it and make the time for each other, it does help that I like rugby!

Ciara Revins. Pic: Supplied

Balancing the job with mum duties

‘My daughter is seven and she is in first class.

‘I have a very supportive family and a very amazing boyfriend. My daughter has to be taken out of bed at half five in the morning and dropped to my mom who then brings her to school for me to her breakfast club.’

‘Again, [there are] amazing people there who go above and beyond me to make all this possible because obviously the hours are challenging, like you know, when you’ve got a seven-year-old at home that needs to get to school.

‘It does mean on the flip side we have our afternoons together. You know we’ve a great quality of life and work life balance [is] so important to me, you know, like I’m a mom, first and foremost but I also want to show her that you can do both. And you can be ambitious You can have your career and you can also you know be a good mom, anyway, I hope to be!’

On being a well known parent

‘She’s very proud of it because she sees what I’m doing but I suppose to her, it’s just normal, That’s my job. She’s probably wondered why other parents aren’t on the radio.’