Dr Marie Cassidy said she’s looking for “fun” and “frivolity” after years of dealing with death as Ireland’s first female State pathologist.
RTE viewers will see the Scottish native in a new light when she performs the jive with pro partner Stephen Vincent on Dancing With The Stars this evening.
Marie, 64, admits she “missed out on life” during her career as a forensic and DNA expert for more than four decades.
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She joins an eclectic line up that includes Eurovision entrant Brooke Scullion, 23, rugby legend Shane Byrne, 51, and influencer and 38-year-old businesswoman Suzanne Jackson.
Drag artist Panti Bliss, 54, footballer Stephanie Roche, 33, and 34-year-old Derry Girls star Leah O’Rourke are also among those vying for the approval of judges Loraine Barry, Brian Redmond and Arthur Gurunlian.
There are no eliminations until week three but like every other contestant Marie is dreading the prospect of being first out of the glitterball contest.
The professor of forensics admits she expects criticism and cynicism from the public for taking on a role that contrasts so sharply with her former career.
She said: “I’m just trying to stay alive for as long as possible.
“Everywhere I go I say, ‘Have you got resuscitation stuff in here, at any point I could just go’.
“I assumed they’d give me a waltz or something, with a nice long dress and Stephen could just wheel me about the place on castors.
“I’m one of these people who lives in the moment, I don’t think too far ahead, I’ve learnt that with my job.
“The nerves are kicking in big style for all of us now as it’s becoming real.”
Marie reflected on the disparity between the reality dance show and the world of forensics, postmortems and inquests.
She added: “It’s a complete contrast, I’ve spent all of my career with very serious, solemn stuff, you live in that world, it’s very hard to escape from it.
“You can’t be seen to be frivolous when you’re dealing with very important matters to families.
“You can’t be seen to be taking things light-heartedly even though, behind closed doors, I’m not a very serious person. You don’t get opportunities like this very often, certainly not at my age anyway. It was an opportunity to say that was then, this is now, to enjoy a bit of life.”
Marie acknowledges she runs the risk of not being taken seriously as a forensics expert in the future, but she’s willing to take the chance.
She said: “There was always that possibility, but I think most people are understanding more of what I do and what I did.
“I took it very seriously and still do if I’m launched back into that again. I think people will see that. You can’t please everybody.
“I’ve been in court and I’ve been questioned and all the rest of it, I’m quite used to criticism from that point of view.
“If people don’t like what I’m doing well I’m sorry I upset people, but it’s just fun.” The reaction, she said, has been positive so far.
Marie added: “The day before yesterday I was going to a fitting, this woman came up to me and said, ‘Lovely to meet you Marie Cassidy, you did the inquest on my brother’.
“She went into his whole story, saying, ‘We got great closure from that’. I told her I was happy as that was what I was wanting to do.
“Then the lady said, ‘We’ll be voting for you on Sunday.’ So that’s the flip side of it, a lot of people can be critical but many think what you do doesn’t define who you are.
“You can have another side to your personality.”
Bubbly by nature, Marie believes now is the perfect time to add the razzle-dazzle into her life.
She said: “Because I couldn’t allow myself to do that or stray into anything else [as State pathologist].
I had to have tunnel vision for 40-plus years and concentrate on what I was doing. So I missed a lot of life because of it. I’ve missed Christmas, birthdays I’ve missed all of that. I’ve done my time, so it’s time to reclaim it all back. As I keep on saying, I’m having a ball I’m having a great time.”
And the petite blonde – who said she wanted to be a stage performer before opting for forensics – is not afraid to step out in skimpy costumes.
Marie added: “Some of the outfits have been absolutely fabulous, they’ve been very good. I think they’ve been saying, ‘Cover her up’.
“The only compensation for me being small and old is that I’ve been wearing stilettos for 50 years, so my feet can take it all, my feet are fine.
Dancing With The Stars airs on RTE One tonight at 6.30pm.
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