The 29-year-old presenter has avoided the usual indie apprenticeship of fanzine scribbling, specialist radio broadcasting and years spent in tiny venues. Instead her CV is more that of a fast-living, high-society wannabe: model, air stewardess and occasional habitué of the gossip columns courtesy of her former relationship with playboy Eddie Irvine.
After all that, delivering links for a late-night video show on a fledgling cable channel must seem a step down. Not for Doherty: she has no interest in the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
“I wouldn’t want it, thanks very much,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being ungrateful. But I’ve seen too many things. I remember going to Monaco with Eddie about two years ago and it was amazing, this person was there and that person was there. The first thing I did after that was go home to Donegal, just to get a reality check.”
Rather than sip champagne with the celebrity set in far-flung locations, Doherty is apparently at her happiest when turning up at a small Dublin television studio to film Night Shift. Not surprising, perhaps, but thanks to her understated style and presence, the show has become a cult hit.
If she lacks the moody cool of an indie chick, her enthusiasm for the sounds she introduces is palpable. She talks excitedly not just about alternative superstars such as Radiohead but also about emerging Irish acts such as Humanzi and the Immediate, and is involved in selecting the show’s videos. For all of 6’s current woes (which include a 1% audience share and the departure after six weeks of broadcasting of its managing director), Doherty insists she does not see the show as a stepping stone.
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“Would I look for another job? To be honest, if this was something I wasn’t proud of, yes. But I’m proud of it so, at the moment, no. Channel 6 is very good to me and it’s nice to work for people who take care of you. I’m happy with the way the show is going, so why would I jeopardise that for a bigger company?” An alternative rock fan who says that for years she fantasised about being an MTV presenter, Doherty seems genuine when she says Night Shift is her dream job. Equally, however, she has never followed a fixed path, has happily gone with the flow.
Certainly, growing up in Mallin, Co Donegal, her ambition was to travel. At the age of 20 she was working as cabin crew for Aer Lingus, a job she still holds down. Becoming a model, however, was an accident. At a party in Dublin she was spotted by a photographer who persuaded her to do some test shots.
“They ended up on the cover of a magazine and I got into it that way,” she says. “It wasn’t my intention, it was the last thing on my mind.”
She wasn’t averse to the perks of her new career, but she never considered it a full-time option. “Ireland is not a big enough scene to live off it. You’d need to go to the States, Milan or Paris. I was happy here doing whatever jobs there were. I suppose I don’t like the stigma that goes with it. I don’t need my face splashed all over a page to make me feel like I’m a person.”
What aspirations she had lay elsewhere and her taste for alternative rock evolved. “I came round to it,” she says. “When you’re in school you’re just into whatever the girlies are into, whereas moving out of that I just started to love live music.
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“Music was my thing, the MTV kind of thing. It was always something I was thinking about. Years ago I went for an MTV thing, but I was a baby then, I didn’t come across well. Whereas now I’m more comfortable. I’ve learned how to deal with the camera.”
Certainly, when Doherty heard via her modelling agency that Channel 6 was looking for music presenters, she jumped at the chance. “To be doing a show where you feel passionate about the music as well is a bonus,” she says.
Currently she is so happy with the show she is ready to leave behind the Aer Lingus safety net. “I’m just waiting for the right time to get out of there, because it is becoming a nightmare,” she says.
“I was supposed to go to New York today, but I’m recording tomorrow (Night Shift’s links are filmed in advance), so now I have to work my ass off for the rest of the week to get myself back on track. It’s a killer.”
Going full-time on the station might lead to restlessness on Doherty’s part. Tellingly, she hopes to expand the show’s minimalist format — “Not in-your-face, just the basics” — and interview visiting bands during the festival season. It remains to be seen if her passion for alternative music will survive such encounters with the hipster elitism of the indie scene or if her gaze wanders to greener television pastures.
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For the moment, however, she is glad to have swapped the jet set for the studio set.
“The best thing for me is not being on television, just that I can’t believe I’ve landed a job I’ve always wanted,” she says. “To be able to achieve that on my own was amazing. It wasn’t somebody I knew or who knew somebody else. “I did it on my own and that’s why I’m so chuffed with it.”
Night Shift, Channel 6, Mon-Fri midnight