Growing Up In Rural Moldova: Diana Bunici

Diana Bunici is a talented Irish journalist and broadcaster who made a name for herself presenting a popular children's TV show on RTÈ, the national broadcaster. From the outset it seemed like she had it all; a dream job, on the cover of magazines, and a great boyfriend. But when you hear her story of how she got to where she is today, it's much more impressive and interesting. Diana grew up in rural Moldova in Eastern Europe. Money was scare, life was simple, and opportunities were few and far between. But thanks to her parent's sacrifice and determination, they moved to Ireland and embarked on a new life. 

In this podcast Diana talks about what it was like starting life in a new country, and trying to fit in with your school mates. She speaks about her time working in television and the insecurity she was feeling around that time, always afraid of how others would perceive her. And we talk about her engagement to Kodaline singer, Steve Garrigan.

Here is Diana Bunici's story. 

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Transcript

S3E2 Diana Bunici

Colm Flynn: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of the Colm Flynn podcast. Diana Bunici is an Irish journalist and reporter who also built up an name for herself presenting an Irish TV show called Elevate for many years on the Irish broadcaster RTE. She also worked in the UK for a while with the BBC. 

Diana Bunici: My name is Diana. I'm an author, journalist, and TV presenter. 

Colm Flynn: She's also a writer and author. And published a book entitled The Pursuit of Awesome, which was a collection of interviews she did with people who had made their dreams a reality in life and how they did it. 

Diana Bunici: I wanted to write a book for a very long time, 

Colm Flynn: But her own story of how she got to where she is today is equally as fascinating.

Before moving to Ireland, Diana grew up in rural Moldova. Where she had barely any electricity and no running water. 

Diana Bunici: We had maybe like two hours of electricity every evening. The toilet was in the back garden, 

Colm Flynn: And [00:01:00] in this interview, Diana opens up about the huge sacrifice her parents made leaving their highly qualified jobs in Moldova.

To move to Ireland to become cleaners looking for a better life for their children. 

Diana Bunici: I know that that was very hard for them to leave behind. Not only family, friends, our home, but also like their profession, basically their whole identity. 

Colm Flynn: And she remembers how a young Diana was trying to fit in in school in a completely new country.

Diana Bunici: So I was like so distraught because I just felt like they don't want me here because I'm weird and I'm foreign and I speak a different language and they don't understand me. 

Colm Flynn: And then when she started working towards her dream job, being told that she wasn't good enough, 

Diana Bunici: That you're never gonna work in tv.

You need to calm down, you need to slow down, you need to like lower the tone. 

Colm Flynn: But Diana persevered, she never gave up, and now she shares her story as well as talks about her recent engagement. To Steve Garrigan, the lead singer of [00:02:00] the band Coline. 

Diana Bunici: I'm really proud that we the able to make it work because it was really difficult, you know, at times.

Colm Flynn: This is the Colm Flynn podcast, and my guest today is Diana Bunici,

and here she is now all the way live from Ireland in high definition, coming to your screens. Diana Bunici, how are you doing? 

Diana Bunici: Hi. I'm good. Thank you. Sorry for the darkness around me. 

Colm Flynn: Yeah. What's going on? Do I need to call the police or something? Like, are you, have you been kidnapped or, this is like a hostage video.

Diana Bunici: I'm Okay. You, you do not have to do this. I'm okay. 

Colm Flynn: You don't have to do this podcast. Like we're not forcing you. Where are you at the moment? 

Diana Bunici: In your basement? 

Colm Flynn: No. No, but seriously, you're in like a, a blackout. Is there a power cut or something? 

Diana Bunici: No, I just have a terrible setup. If, if you could only see the terrible attempt of a lighting setup behind the laptop, [00:03:00] you'd understand I'm in the spare bedroom.

Colm Flynn: Look at this. It's 

Diana Bunici: lovely. I promise. It's lovely. Well, we're 

Colm Flynn: gonna work with what we have 'cause we're professionals and we work with adversity. So, Diana, it's great to see you again. I haven't seen you. Uh, the last time I saw you, you were here in Rome with your boyfriend now fiance. Yeah. You were with Steve.

And before that though, we met, uh, a long time ago. Back. We were both working in rt. In Dublin. You were working in the TV section. And I was working, yeah. Over in the radio section, but people were fascinated by you for a number of reasons, because you had come in and you were presenting this television show for children called Elevate with Sean and 

Diana Bunici: Ivan.

Colm Flynn: Sean and Ivan. Yeah. And Brilliant show. How many years did that go on for? 

Diana Bunici: It went on for almost five years. Wow. So we were alive every single day in Families Living rooms, I'd say Children's Living Rooms. It was a kids TV show, age group, seven to 11. So. Really fun and out there at the best of times.

Colm Flynn: And Diana, you had never worked in television before this. [00:04:00] 

Diana Bunici: No, and it was a real shock to me that I actually got the job. Like I, I still am quite shy. I'm good with like people one-on-one or in small groups, but me in a large group. And I think because there's so many more dominant personalities, I just kind of retract and I observe.

So I think I was definitely like that still in my teenage years, um, in my early twenties. So I genuinely do not know. How I got that job. It was the biggest shock to me. So, um, it was like an open audition. You could send in a show, Rio, a little, a little bit about yourself and then I suppose a few clips if you filmed anything.

But I think maybe the thing that got me over the line, I. In the end was that I was the mediator for my co-hosts because they were quite like loud and full of life. And I was kind of like, Hey guys, like chill out. It's gonna be okay. I tease the energy, chill out. So I was like the boring big sister. You were just like, alright guys.

Colm Flynn: Yeah, just came down a bit. 

Diana Bunici: But the, I was there [00:05:00] to level things out. 

Colm Flynn: The amazing thing was that, uh, when people learned more about your story and where we will get into this in a second, but where you came from. And the country you came from, because you're not from Ireland originally, but the circumstances and to, to where you got to in a relatively short period of time.

And people work all their life trying to get into television or, or get a, a daily show on tv. But here you are. You had never worked in television before, and then all of a sudden you're on the biggest channel in the country and you're doing the big, uh, afternoon show for children. Was it How many hours Live every day?

Diana Bunici: It wasn't hours live. 

Colm Flynn: No it wasn't.

Diana Bunici: It was in between shows. It was on a few minutes every day. Our show was live for 20 minutes every single day. And although it was, it may sound like a short burst of time, oh my gosh. What? The jam act, that 20 minutes felt like a minute. But also there was enough content that could have filled an hour 

Colm Flynn: Because some of it was, some of it was based on the studio and then some of it you had remote, uh, skits that you would record or an [00:06:00] interview in London.

With a, a movie star or a singer or something like that. Um, first of all, before I ask you about, uh, where, where you're from, Moldova and, uh, what life was like there, comparing it to coming to Ireland, the job on Elevate, you said you were very shy and you naturally kind of weren't the loud one, but all of a sudden you're on TV every day and you have to perform.

Did you enjoy the job? 

Diana Bunici: I love my job, but I also, looking back sometimes wish I could have lived in the moment more because I spend so much time worrying how am I coming across? Did I say something stupid? What are the people at home gonna think? Which is really not a great space to be in when you are really in, in the prime place that you could be as a TV presenter starting out.

Because kids tv, you're allowed to make mistakes. In fact. It's what makes it better, you know? Um, whereas I would really beat myself up if I flipped over my words or I said the wrong line. It didn't help that we didn't have auto queue, so everything [00:07:00] was, you know, you had your cue cards in front of you, and yes, I would've scripted maybe the lines earlier that day, but I.

Very much. When you're live, you kind of go with the flow of things. You know how that works. And I wasn't always maybe the sharpest with comebacks, so I would always beat myself up like going off air. I'd be like, why'd I say that? Or Why didn't I say that? I was just so afraid you could. See it in my eyes, you know?

Well, I can when I look back. Um, but look, listen, it was just like, it was basically TV presenting school, but live on air. On air for me, on air. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 

Colm Flynn: And that, that pressure and fear of messing up or making a fool of yourself, did that come from the people who made the show, the producers from rt?

Or did that come from your family or did that come from yourself or? 

Diana Bunici: Yeah, it came from myself because I wanted to prove almost to myself and to everybody else that I was capable of doing this because I knew like. I almost felt like a fraudster at times, or like imposter syndrome, like how [00:08:00] did I get here and what if they're gonna find me out that I'm really terrible?

Um, but no, I had so much support and encouragement from family, from friends, from everyone in RTE. I will say though, it wasn't a great confidence, sister, I did. Um, so my voice, you know, is, I suppose I'm female, so sometimes it can be high pitched. A bit of stress into the situation that I get to be up there, which is kind of was what was happening in our dry room before we ever went live.

Um, and they set me up with like a voice coach to do a little bit of training. And I guess this man chose the top lovers because he was like, your voice is so high pitched that you're never gonna work in tv. You need to calm down. You need to slow down, you need to like lower the tone. 

Colm Flynn: Wow. 

Diana Bunici: Um, 

Colm Flynn: This is what the voice coach told you.

You'll never work in tv. Because of your voice.  

Diana Bunici: He, yeah. He was like, you won't succeed. Um, and I remember leaving that room. Going back to my desk in my office, in young people, in the young, [00:09:00] um, people's department where all the children's TV came out of. Um, and 

Colm Flynn: It's like I, from somebody who worked in RTE, it's so, that's so typical, RTE.

You're, you're having a great day and someone brings you into a room. It's like, listen, you're never gonna succeed in this business. Now go back out to young. You're 

Diana Bunici: never gonna succeed. 

Colm Flynn: Go back out to young people's TV and have a great day. 

Diana Bunici: Make tv. Um, but I just remember. I trying so hard to hold back to tears because I really just wanted, I, I had this opportunity and I wanted to move on to it.

I didn't want to. Risk losing it. And reality was I wasn't gonna lose it over the fact that my voice maybe went a little bit squeaky when I was, um, stressed, but in my head, because I was so, um, hard on myself. This was like, this was it. I believe this man. Bearing in mind, this is before we ever went live for the first show.

Yeah. This was like a week before we went live. 

Colm Flynn: Did you, did you try and lower your voice then? Or were you going in and, uh, Hey [00:10:00] kids? Uh, welcome to the program. I'm Diana Bucci. I. 

Diana Bunici: I think even if I tried to lower my voice, I was so stressed in myself that it was never gonna happen. Also, when I did lower my voice, I.

I carried myself differently, and then that didn't feel natural to me. Mm. I, I also was like, I'm here to present children's tv, not like the six o'clock news. So I just kind of tried to find the balance of how can I lower the tone, but also be myself. And in the end it just, my voice kind of leveled itself out because my stress levels went down lower.

Colm Flynn: It's interesting just, um, that turmoil in your mind, I guess, of. Not wanting to fail, being told that you won't have a career in television because of your voice. And then I know in RT the short term contact contracts. 

Diana Bunici: Contracts, yeah. So you 

Colm Flynn: Were like going, what? Just a few months at a time. 

Diana Bunici: Oh. So we went from September to June every year, and then we broke off for two, three months.

Colm Flynn: And they wouldn't tell you, I guess, that you were coming back until the last minute, or they [00:11:00] would, you wouldn't be guaranteed at the end that the next contract is coming for the next season. 

Diana Bunici: We kind of kept, our fingers crossed that we would, and we had a good feeling. There was never really a feeling of that we're not coming back on air.

And the year that we stopped making the show, we knew that we will be stopping making the show that December. So it was never like a shock that it was ending. We were treated really nicely because we knew come September we'll be back. But of course like there was always that little bit of. Well, what if we're not?

What do I do with myself then? Because it was also a tricky situation because although you're breaking for two, three months, technically you're still a children's TV presenter for the national broadcaster. So it's not like you can go off and do all sorts of like weird experimental stuff for like, you know.

It just, you just always had to bear in mind that whatever it is you're doing, you're still representing the national broadcaster and the capacity of a children's TV presenter. So I just felt that pressure, and it might sound silly, but at the time it was [00:12:00] everything to me. Um, of course. 

Colm Flynn: Was it was your identity because all of a sudden, uh, you are, you're Diana Bunici and immigrants come to Ireland, but then you're a television star.

And you're all over TV every day and you're being invited on chat shows as well, and you're in the newspapers. So I can, did you feel like it was your identity in a way? Like this was you, this was everything about you. 

Diana Bunici: Um, it definitely became my, yeah, it definitely became my entity. I think I always, maybe, and it's something that I've been working on, but I was always kind of defined, I suppose, by my career, and it's how I saw myself as well.

Like, I'm Diana Buchi, the career girl, Diana Beci, the journalist and Diana Buchi, the, yeah, the children's TV presenter, but I suppose more so than, than the TV presenter or. Whatever other title it was, it was like the Moldovan girl on tv, the Moldovan girl who is a journalist. So that those two things tied in [00:13:00] together seemed to become my identity and I was very aware that I was representing, you know, Moldovan Eastern Europeans, and for some reason people were ignorant enough to think.

My foreign name would stop me, you know, having a chance. And actually now that's probably the most exciting part of me. The fact that I have, you know what I mean, in terms of what I have to offer? Yeah. Something a little bit different. It's a little bit exotic, but at the time it was seen as like, oh, 

Colm Flynn: and also near you.

And also you, you can argue that, uh, now we are facing, you know, this huge, uh, uh, immigration, uh, crisis around the world where people are moving the whole time because there are different situations. And even in Ireland, we have. So many Ukrainians living now because of the war. Yeah. But someone like you, if you're interviewing them or talking to them on a show, you would understand maybe their situation a bit better and be able to have empathy or understanding on a level maybe that other presenters wouldn't be able to because you in a way, although not escaping war, but you made that journey as well, looking for a better life.

So. [00:14:00] Exactly. Yeah. You're from, uh, Moldova, uh, Eastern Europe. Mm-Hmm. Just remind us, where is Moldova? What are it's, who are, who are your neighbors back home? 

Diana Bunici: My, well, my neighbors, our neighbors back home are Romania, the Ukraine and Russia. I guess we're really, we're really far east. 

Colm Flynn: Yeah. And what it was 1996 you left?

Yeah. Aldo, what age were you when you, uh, left with your parents? 

Diana Bunici: I was eight. We came to Ireland. Wow. Yeah, we came to Ireland. 

Colm Flynn: And is this  true? because I know you made a documentary when you went back home after 10 years, a decade, and you relink with some of your family. But, uh, when you were on TV and I was like, is this for show or is this real?

Like you, you grew up with no electricity and like a toilet out in the backfield? Um. No running water in the house. 

Diana Bunici: It was like 1950s Ireland. But in the nineties, uh, yeah, that's how we grew up. Our village has come like a long, long way now. It's definitely caught up with the time. There's been a lot of [00:15:00] investment into it.

Um, we now have electricity. We now I believe, have running water. I say this, I haven't been actually back to Moldova in 10 years. It seems to be every 10 years I make the trip. Kind of funny. Um, so I'm going this June. Oh, wow. But I know, so I'm, I'm actually excited to see how, how much it's come on. Um, but back then anyway, yeah.

Um, because Moldova used to be part of the USSR, um, when it gained a dependence, it was cut off from a lot of. Things, electricity, gas, all these things that are essential to kind of keep you going, I guess. Um, so yeah, we had maybe like two hours of electricity every evening. Uh, we had no running water. We got our water from well, um, yep.

The toilet was in the back garden. Um, it was just a very basic, basic, simple life. Um, very different, I suppose, the life that we. Have here. Um, but it was now me in the worst life. Mm-Hmm. [00:16:00] Um, the reason my parents wanted to leave is because they wanted to give me opportunities, I suppose, that they didn't have.

Also, they just wanted a little bit of security. Um, and at the time things were very unstable. 

Colm Flynn: Your parents, what did they work at in Moldova? What were their jobs? 

Diana Bunici: Uh, my mom was a doctor in the emergency room, um, and my dad was an engineer mechanic. Wow. Um, so they, they had a really good job. They studied really hard to get their degrees and it was, I, I know it was, they don't talk about it much because their.

Proud people and they say that they have no regrets because they did it for me and my brother, and they would never change that. But you know, I love that. That was very hard for them to leave behind. Not only family, friends, our home, but also like their profession basically. Their whole identity really is what they had to leave behind.

Mm. The person that they were and everything they knew, they [00:17:00] had to put aside. Come to Ireland and start completely afresh. Like my mom didn't get to work as a doctor again. My dad didn't get to work as an engineer mechanic. Again, it's not a unique story. So many people have done it, but 

Colm Flynn: What did they work at when they came to Ireland?

Or what jobs did they pick up? 

Diana Bunici: Whatever jobs they could get. So my mom was a cleaner for a while that my brother was born, uh, when she could go back to work. She worked in a supermarket at the checkout. Over time. Then she went and did a beauty therapist course. So she opened up her own beauty salon. Then she, um, opened up a small recruitment agency.

Um, she's now involved in the MOLDOVAN Embassy and helps kind of the community and. Many things kind of on that side of things. My dad worked in construction. My dad worked basically nonstop. That man probably slept about three hours a night. Wow. Less 'cause there was a small baby in the house. Um, so in the daytime he would work in construction, whatever.

You know, [00:18:00] jobs he could pick up when one job ended, he would move on. Um, and in the evenings he worked in a takeaway restaurant. Um, 

Colm Flynn: And Diana, it strikes me when you're telling the story that it, for your parents to do that, it is such a selfless act of love towards you. Yeah. And your brother who had later come, but for, for the family unit, because most of us now today, of course, are self-obsessed and career obsessed, and you know, it has become our identity.

Like I lived in New York for five years, and you meet someone and the first thing they ask you is, oh, what's your name? Call him. What do you do? It defines you. Yeah. And if you have an ordinary job, that's great, but especially in the United States, you're judged by the position, the level you have, the career, the salary.

So for your parents who, although coming from a poor country, especially back then, Moldova, it sounds like they weren't doing too bad in that your mom was a doctor and your dad was an engineer. So they were doing, they were kind of in the upper class. Um, you know, they weren't the poorest of the poor, I'm sure, in [00:19:00] Moldova.

But for them to sacrifice that and say. Even though I worked so hard for this degree and this job, I'm going to go to New Ireland and your mom going from being a doctor in the emergency room to being a cleaner, like many of us would do that nowadays. We'd be too selfish. But 

Diana Bunici: I know that's, it's quite, 

Colm Flynn: It's incredible.

Diana Bunici: Phenomenal, really. Yeah, and I, I, I respect and appreciate so much the sacrifices that they made, but it was definitely something that I, I was very aware of all throughout my teenage years. Earlier I was saying that like I was quite a, I suppose a good child and teenager. I kind of did what I was told, but.

I did what I was told, because I was aware how much was sacrificed for us to be in this position, to be here, to be able to have this kind of life. Let's not forget that back in 1996, Ireland wasn't as multicultural. There were not that many people from other countries living here. So we definitely stood out like, you know.

Yeah. 

Colm Flynn: So on, especially Moldova. Where are you from that [00:20:00] Moldova? Right. Eh, 

Diana Bunici: But like people had never heard of Moldova. Like thank god for the euro. Your vision. Yeah. Put Moldova on the map. But literally people had never heard of it before. Like, I remember someone going, is that in Cork? Like legitimate, legitimate question.

Colm Flynn: South Cork, they keep going to south of you can get on a boat, they get on a plane, but, uh, MULO haven't won the Eurovision yet, have they? Have they won? 

Diana Bunici: No, not yet. They've done well though. They've done quite well. 

Colm Flynn: Okay. But they haven't won it yet. That'll be your next, uh, gig at the Eurovision of Moldova.

Yes. Are, are your parents, their family was there, so they left their family as well? Uh, like their parents when they came. And why Ireland? Why did they pick Ireland? 

Diana Bunici: Um, they had a friend here who was like, you know, not too bad. It's safe. It's an independent country, it's stable enough. Education system is good.

Come over and try it. Come for a year, see what happens. 

Colm Flynn: That's the best way of describing Ireland. It's stable enough. [00:21:00] 

Diana Bunici: No. Then, you know, there was no gonna, there was not gonna be civil unrest. Yes. Or war or anything like that. And for them that was important because Moldova had just gained independence. It had been cut off from any so many supplies, you know?

Colm Flynn: And you were eight years of age. Diana, could you speak any English at all when you arrived in in Ireland? 

Diana Bunici: Not really. No. Like, hello, hello. 

Colm Flynn: And then you went to school, you went straight into Irish school? 

Diana Bunici: Yeah, so I remember actually the first day we went to, um, so I lived in, uh, Dublin City Center. And the first day we went to school to see if I could get a place, you know, um.

I clearly did not know what was going on. And we were sent off. We were walking back home and I started crying and my dad was like, what's wrong? And I'm like, they don't like me. They won't accept me. They, and my dad was like, no, no, no, everything's okay. They want you to come back on Monday so you could start the week afresh.

So I was like so distraught because I just felt like [00:22:00] they don't want me here because I'm weird and I'm foreign and I speak a different language and they don't understand me. But. So that's how desperate I was, even from like that first stage to be accepted. You know? 

Colm Flynn: Did you ever see your parents and moments of weakness or you see them?

Diana Bunici: Um, they tried to not, um, express that in front of me actually. Um, but you always sense it, you know, children are very intuitive. Yeah. Um. So I think I definitely sensed it. I sensed it more when it came to, I suppose, phone conversations with their parents. Oh, yeah. Um, and over time, you know, my grandparents getting ill.

Mm. Them feeling the burden and the guilt that they're not nearby, you know? Then my granddad passed away not long after, maybe a year and a half until was living here. So those were the moments where. Obviously I [00:23:00] saw it. It was impossible for them to hide. 

Colm Flynn: Did you feel at home, like, I often wonder this when, uh, an immigrant comes to another country and like that your parents are Moldova and talking to the folks back home, you're there, your brother was born, um, not clicking in school immediately or too well like everyone else.

I mean, do you feel like it is home or were you the whole time longing to go back to Moldova? Oh, you're thinking this is great. This is an exciting new life. I like this country. 

Diana Bunici: Honestly, I'm really lucky that my brother was born not long after we came here, because that changed the dynamic and it was such an excitement for my mom, for my dad, for me, like I, there's an eight, eight year age gap, so he was, he was only, he was born a couple of months into us being here and, um.

Like, my mom was doing cleaning jobs like eight and nine months pregnant. You know, like she really, up until the very end was working hard to save money, to be able to pay rent and stuff. [00:24:00] Um, so I feel like his arrival changed a lot of things and it made me feel less lonely if I didn't have a sibling. I can't imagine what it would've been like because he became our world for all of us, like we're the world through the eyes of a child is so special, and to see them like discover their world and explore the world like that for me, brought me so much joy.

I literally was obsessed with my brother. I would like go to John Scott, come home when he'd like. Seven months old sitting in his little, uh, bouncy thing and I'd be like showing him my dances moves. Like I'd be doing fashion shows and dressing him all like the poor kid. 

Colm Flynn: But you know what, there's something beautiful about that because I remember noticing that about you as well.

When we were pals and, uh, RTE, you would, uh, seeing in your twenties you would hang out with your brother a lot. You would go to events with him, you would, uh, and I just thought there was something really nice about that and special that you had a [00:25:00] sense of how important family is. 

Diana Bunici: Sure to me, but probably to him, I was a pain of the bone.

Yeah. He'd be like, leave me alone. You're so cool. I think I definitely was a burden to him when I worked in RTE. I was embarrassing. When 

Colm Flynn: Now when you got the job then on television, fast forward to you getting the job. Were your parents very proud? 

Diana Bunici: Oh yeah. Like. Exceptionally so, but I don't think it mattered what it is that I was doing.

I think they would've been proud anyway. But I think that it was seen as such because they'd heard it too. Like, she's not gonna make, that's not never gonna happen for her. She should choose a more realistic career, you know? So they obviously had their doubts deep inside as well. What if this doesn't happen for her?

What if she, you know, what if. What if she gets really upset that the, this dream that she's chasing isn't a possibility. But again, they never expressed that they were always so positive. And anything you want [00:26:00] to do, like anything is possible, we'll help you along the way. We'll fer you to whatever, audition and back and we'll wait for like.

To get my job in rt in RTE. Um, I was, so, I was here when I, when I sent my application and then we didn't hear back for a few weeks. We had a family trip planned, so we went to, uh, France actually, and then we went to Monaco with my auntie and uncle. Were celebrating. Um, I. A big wedding anniversary, and it was while I was there that I got a call back from RTE asking me to do an audition like literally three days later or something like that.

Bearing in mind, I'm in Monaco. My dad was like, no problem. Let's book some flights. We're going home. So me and him flew home. He drove me to RTE. I did my audition. We went back to the airport and flew back to France or to Monaco. I can't remember where exactly we were the first time. Um, and then I got another call a few days later saying, you're through to the next round.

My dad was like, no problem. Wow. Let's [00:27:00] get a flight. So we literally flew home twice from that holiday. Just so I could audition and each time like he insisted on being there with me because he was like, you know, so like, I literally had like unbelievable support from them. 

Colm Flynn: It's the name of the game all over the world that these TV shows come, and the TV shows go and you know, they change the schedule and they try new people and it happens everywhere.

Were your parents disappointed when they ended Elevate the kid show, when they were gonna replace it with something else? 

Diana Bunici: No, I don't think so. They knew that I was ready to kind of spread my wings a little bit. I think the last year that I worked on that show, I definitely felt a little bit frustrated. I was trying to bang on doors and say like, you know, I want to make this documentary.

I want to. Make this report. I had a lot of opportunities actually come my way. My first few years working on that kid show. Probably spurred on by the fact that the Moldova background offering kind of a different flavor, I suppose, on [00:28:00] screen. Um, but I wasn't allowed to do them because I was a children's TV presenter.

Colm Flynn: Do you regard it as a poison chalice in a way that you get this great opportunity to be on kids television, but because of that you're typecast into it and you're not allowed to break out of the mold? So there's a little 

Diana Bunici: Bit, 

Colm Flynn: yeah, 

Diana Bunici: A little bit. Because then, you know, the critique was, well, she's so nice.

How can we put her to make, you know, more serious documentary? She's so nice. And, um, but yeah, it just was difficult to, to, to get people to give me that chance. In saying that, like during my time in. Children, Stevie, I got amazing opportunities. I got to travel to Moldova and make a documentary that was broadcast not only on RTE two, but RTE one as well about my story and how, you know, how I, how I ended up on TV in the first place.

Where did I come from? You know, what was my life like before 

Colm Flynn: your documentary in Moldova, that was a, going back, uh, you had left, so it was 10 years after and it was showing people what your life was like in [00:29:00] Moldova. And you, you'd reconnected with some of your old friends, and it was quite emotional. Some bits of it were people you were very good friends with as a child you hadn't seen, and you had gone and created this whole new life.

And they must have been like, this is unbelievable. Diana, you went and became a, a TV star in another part of the world and you have electricity, 

Diana Bunici: Sound, and running 

Colm Flynn: But I mean, I'm joking my, but I'm, I'm laughing. But I mean, they should, they must have thought, this is, wow, you've gone to Hollywood. 

Diana Bunici: Yeah, I mean the funny, like, I never like to sound so weird to say I never changed, but I was always the same person.

The person that left, I was still the same person. Yes, I learned to speak a new language. Yes, I adapted to a new culture. Yes, I was wearing different clothes and yes, I had running water, electricity, and all those things, but it was still the same me. And that's the thing that they, they thought was really funny.

Colm Flynn: Do you, do you miss it? The world of television? I know you stayed in journalism and you moved into print. And now, um, did you miss it? 

Diana Bunici: Um, I [00:30:00] miss the excitement of live tv. Yeah. And sometimes I miss the variety. Um, but I mean, I really feel like the start of my career was. Just almost like the dream, really, like for any, for any broadcaster or wanna any broadcaster.

That was the dream. So I kind of knew that eventually the climate went first. It made it be back to reality. For some people it doesn't and they continue going up and up and up and tv. Um, for me, I was just aware of that. A lot of my say, friends in college, um, spend years trying to find their place in the industry that they were.

Focused on, not all of them actually ended up in journalism, but whatever they were chasing, they spent years kind of fighting their place in that area and embedding themselves. I happened to have this job before I even graduated my final year in college. So I knew that eventually this little bubble would burst and then I'd be back to square one trying to figure it out.

So like [00:31:00] there's positives and there's obviously minuses to where it having happened that way. Um. So, yeah, I just see it as like a very unique, very cool experience and I definitely have a lot, a lot of nostalgia for, for that time for working in tv, but also the industry has changed so much that if I was to chase that now I know it would never be what it was.

And I'm kind of okay with that, you know? Um, and also I love what I do. There's so much variety in my job now that you can kind of incorporate. Broadcasting. You can, you can really be anything now, can't you? You can wear many hats. Um, and that's kind of the beauty of it 

Colm Flynn: As someone who, but yeah, I 

Diana Bunici: do, I do miss it.

Colm Flynn: As someone who worked in RT for so many years, and it was such a part of your life, when you look at RT today and, uh, the various scandals and the budgets that are shrinking and shrinking because people aren't paying their license fee, what do you think when you see what's happening in tort? [00:32:00] 

Diana Bunici: Yeah, it's, it's a shame.

But I don't wanna co, I don't wanna comment on scandals or anything like that, but it is a shame because it's our national broadcaster. It has an important, you know. In society. It tells Irish stories from Irish people, but also many different people that call, call Ireland home. And it's a shame that it's, yeah, it's just a shame.

It's, it's a shame that it's not, I dunno if it, if it was ever 

Colm Flynn: Diana, you know, they were right. She's too nice. I wanted some names here. I was looking for some names. I want heads on the plate. Hey, Dana, with the, your job that you're doing now, um, yeah. You, you love the variety of it. What, what is your hope and dream for the future?

Diana Bunici: As much as I love my job, I obviously, you know, I hope to start my own business someday. I would love to go and write novels like I want to write [00:33:00] creatively as well as doing what I do. Um. I would love to step back into TV in some shape or form. Um, I'd love to make documentaries. There's lots of things I want to do, but I'm at that point where I'm like, where do you find the time and the day to do it all?

You know? And I'm always in awe of people. Like I say, I wanna write a book. There's so many journalists to work their full-time job, and then at lunchtime or in the evenings, you know, are working away in their laptop, like writing their novel. I'm like, how do they do it? I'm like, it just seems so hard to find the time.

So that's something that I'm trying to work on better, finding the time and if the time isn't there, making the time. And even now, you know, to young people like you, literally can't be anything you want to be because, um, when I lived in London after I left RTE, that was like my next chapter. I went and tried to find a job in the industry there, which is way [00:34:00] easier said than done.

And I was lucky. I had a few little, um, freelance gigs. I definitely had some really big meetings, but London is its own thing. And you know, they have their own people there with I, I think the stumbling block that I found in London, they were like, you have this amazing experience that some people here don't have, but they have a really big social platform because they came from X reality show.

So even though you have the experience, they're gonna get the jobs because more people know their faceless. So that was a very harsh reality that I had to accept when I moved to London. So I utilized that time instead to get a passion project off the ground, which was. I am going somewhere with this, by the way.

I'm not just like rambling on about London. And by the way, I also moved here. No, um, while I was there I was like, okay, well if I have this free time that you know, more time on my hands than I ever thought that I would have moving there, why don't I use it to like, make my book come to life? So I published a book, um, called The Pursuit of Awesome, which was [00:35:00] basically what I was saying, encouraging young people to pursue their dreams.

Through the stories of 50 high profile people, wow. Who pursued their dreams. People who I suppose, had to experience their own adversities or were so, so far away from the world that they ended up in, and how did they get there and what did they do, and what were the highs of lows that they experienced?

Um, that is so cool. 

Colm Flynn: I remember you publishing that book, uh, with Yeah. And what an achievement to, to put together a book, to write it and to assemble it, and then to publish it. 

Diana Bunici: It's great on paper. It doesn't make you rich. Not that I'm chasing wealth, but you know it. The publishing industry. Yeah, but it, you know, it, it's funny because sometimes I'm like, oh yeah, I wrote this book once and I'm almost like, but it didn't, you know, it didn't sell millions of copies, but.

Yeah, you're right. It is a great achievement and it's something I'm really proud of, but sometimes I shy away from even mentioning it because I'm like, but it's not like it won, you know, bestseller awards or anything. But 

Colm Flynn: such a, you don't need to win the, the book or prize such a piece. [00:36:00] Yeah. 'cause a lot of so many people talk about it or have an idea for a book, but they very rarely do it because of the time involved in the investment.

But. You did it. So that's a great, another one of your great achievements. 

Diana Bunici: Yeah. Well I dunno, it's not like I have a massive long list now, Colin. You do. But that is one thing that I'm, that I'm definitely very proud of because it took so much work to get it off the ground, to convince a publisher to publish a book that you haven't written a single page of.

That was hard when I got there. 

Colm Flynn: Listen, exactly. I work in the media, I know what it's like. And so when I see the things you've done, you have been. Hugely successful. And I know you're being humble about it now, but it's something you should be proud of. And finally, before I let you go, because you've been very good with your time, Diana, uh, I have to say congratulations and celebrations.

Diana Bunici: Thanks. What are you congratulating me for? 

Colm Flynn: Oh, come on, you're engaged. 

Diana Bunici: I am engaged. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it's exciting. It's been a long time coming, [00:37:00] as Steve would say. Um, and all of our families. Your Steve, your, 

Colm Flynn: your boyfriend Steve. He is the, the front man, the singer in that great band Code line. 

Diana Bunici: Yeah.

He's in that great band at Code Line. Yeah. 

Colm Flynn: You've been dating for how long? 

Diana Bunici: 10 years. 

Colm Flynn: 10 years. Put a ring on it, but now he has put a ring in it. So how long have you been engaged? When did he propose? 

Diana Bunici: Only a couple of months. He proposed on the 23rd of December 23. 

Colm Flynn: Do you have a date set for the wedding? 

Diana Bunici: Um, it'll be spring 25.

That's all I know. 

Colm Flynn: That's all you know. And how are you feeling about it? That's all I know. How are you feeling going into married life? 

Diana Bunici: Good. I'm feeling good. It's, um, it's obviously something that I wanted to happen. And it was the next obvious step after such a long time together. Um, we are best friends.

We're very different, but we also compliment each other in many ways. And, you [00:38:00] know, sometimes I can get very serious and he, his kind of goofy, silly side brings me back down to earth. Likewise, sometimes he can get very anxious and caught up in himself. And kind of the happy go lucky side of me kind of brings him back down to earth.

Yeah, I'm excited to be married .

Colm Flynn: Because I'm sure it's difficult too, in a way because he's got his touring schedule and he has to travel to different parts of the world with a band, and that's where the, where the money is made nowadays in the industry, the touring and the gigs. So, but what an adventure you guys have ahead of you.

Diana Bunici: Yeah, it's gonna be good. It's been, I mean, we're well used to. Being apart really, because obviously in the last 10 years he is been away. I lived away on different occasions, but we always made it work. We always found time for each other and yeah, I'm actually, I'm, I'm really proud that we haven't been able to make it work because it was really difficult, you know, at times.

Just, yeah, being so far [00:39:00] away from the person that you love and. You just, you just make it work when you care about somebody. And funnily enough, we met an RTE. So 

Colm Flynn: There you go. 

Diana Bunici: It all comes full circle. It all 

Colm Flynn: happened in rt and I met you guys, and we had a lovely dinner here in Roman. Uh, he, he's a great guy, lovely guy.

So I was delighted when I saw that you got engaged. And Diana, congratulations on all your success, uh, to what your parents did for you and the family. You're just a great success story of determination, of hard work and, uh, just being an all around great person. So thanks for being on the podcast with me.

Diana Bunici: I was gonna say, immigrants aren't so bad, you know? Nah, we're not so bad. Well, dos 

Colm Flynn: Aren't that bad. Hey Diana, thank you so much. 

Diana Bunici: Alright, thank you so much Colm. And um, yeah, see you in Rome soon hopefully.