Sarah McInerney is known now as one of the most respected voices on politics and current affairs in Ireland. But it took a long time and some career disappointments to come this far.
I spent one of the most pleasant car journeys of my life listening to Sarah McInerney and Chris Donohue's drivetime show on Newstalk. I was a lapsed radio listener, but after that Dublin to Kerry drive, I vowed to tune in on my commute home from the next Monday. The next week, the show was cancelled. I resumed my routine of weekday radio avoidance.
This summer, though, I found idle earphones and, recognising that I wasn't relaxing in the morning, began listening to Ryan Tubridy on my walk to work. Eventually, I decided to tune in to Radio One on my walk home. The voice that greeted me was Sarah's, presenting Drivetime for the summer. I knew her voice before I heard her name: soft but authoritative and with that neutral Galway accent. It's a feminine voice that no one can complain is - eye roll - 'too female'.
Sarah has since commented that she thought her career might be over by the axing of the show, but that she was 'pleasantly surprised' by the public's reaction and the offers she got after. That was a year ago. Since then, she proved that the only way really is up.
Sarah began her journey towards being a trusted household name by studying journalism in DCU fifteen years ago. Initially, she thought she had made a big mistake and even began to plan a redirection into law. It wasn't until her final year with a 'news days' module, where she found she enjoyed playing the role of editor, and a successful internship at the Sunday Tribune that transformed into a job, that she realised that news really was her calling.
By the time I first encountered Sarah, on Newstalk during that cross-country journey, she had already built up a seriously impressive CV. After the Tribune, she worked as political correspondent for The Sunday Times for seven years. When she made the move to radio, she did so with significant experience and a respected reputation, but it didn't come without its sacrifices.
I came back too early from maternity leave. I had a little boy about three years ago - he's three now - and I took eight months maternity leave after I had him ... but then I started to get antsy that people would forget who I was; that my sources would be gone; that my editor might start looking around; that I just wouldn't be where I was when I got back ... and I was wrong.
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Despite the disappointment of the Newstalk show's cancellation, Sarah believes moving to radio was the best decision she made, career-wise. It was hard to leave the 'good benefits' she was reaping from the Sunday Times and become essentially self-employed, but it ended up opening so many doors.
Sarah's path is uniquely hers. Anyone hoping for a career like hers won't - can't - get to where she is in the way she did. She does have advice, though, for prospective journalists, the same advice she was given by a lecturer when she was a student at DCU.
When you're working on a story, for whatever medium you're working in, always ask yourself, 'Is this the best it could be?' and I find that works really, really well. You might think that you've done a good job on something and then if you stop and you look at it and you ask yourself that question and you realise there's somebody else you could have called that could actually give you a whole new angle or give a different layer to it, a different layer of complexity.
Hurdles can either prevent you from moving forward, or you jump over them. It's harder to back up and take the leap than to turn around and walk away, but as demonstrated by Sarah, and our other Women to Watch in this series, taking chances do pay off.
Sarah McInerney presents The Late Debate on RTE Radio One and The Sunday Show on Virgin Media One. For measured and interesting thoughts and comments, follow Sarah on Twitter.
Read about the other wonderful women in our past Women to Watch features:
