AFTER four suspense-filled weeks on our screens, Letterkenny woman Kelley Higgins is back to “normality”, returning to work following last week’s thrilling finale of The Traitors Ireland.
The series, which wrapped up last week, had the nation on the edge of its seat, amassing over 4 million streams on RTÉ Player to date.
But for Kelley, it’s back to reality as she settles back into her role in their family-run business, ABC School Supplies.
Despite returning to work, life feels a little surreal for the 23-year-old, who is still adjusting to the newfound fame that came with winning the popular show.
“People stop me on the street asking for photos, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” Kelley laughed.
Kelley had continued working throughout the airing of the show and only took time off to attend a screening of last week’s final episode.
“Other than that, it’s just five days a week – back to work. No special treatment,” she said.
Kelley had found out back in February that she had been selected as a contestant for the Irish version of The Traitors after almost missing her opportunity to apply.
She was struggling to upload the application video and after two failed attempts, Kelley took one last stab at recording after coming home from the gym.
“My hair was a mess, I was so sweaty and not at all ready but I knew if I just sent it I would stop worrying about it.”
The genuine application, with not a ring light in site, worked in Kelley’s favour.
“They wanted honest people and that’s what they got.”
With filming set to begin the following month, she didn’t have much time to process the news.
That’s when she started weaving her web of secrecy.
To keep her participation under wraps, she spun a story that she had made a bet with her dad, claiming she couldn’t last two weeks without her phone.
“Anyone who asked, I planted that seed,” she explained.
“And somehow it worked, they believed it!”
Only her parents knew the truth and fortunately for Kelley, her dad is also her boss so taking time off work wasn’t an issue.
“I had it in my head that I would only last three or four days in the castle, I never thought I would be away for the full two weeks.”
After filming wrapped up in March, she returned home and had to remain tight-lipped.
When Kelley finally got her phone back, she was met with a flood of messages from friends, all wondering how she hadn’t broken her digital detox.
“It felt like I was living in another world, especially knowing I had won. Keeping it a secret was so hard.”
Kelley’s big reveal came at the end of August when the contestants’ names were made public.
She was in the middle of her third day at Electric Picnic with friends when she had to make the announcement and they were truly shocked.
In the first half of the show, Kelley managed to stay under the radar.
She had watched every other season, so she knew the drill and carefully crafted a plan to avoid banishment.
“The loudest players always go first, from everything I’ve seen. Anyone who’s perceived as a threat is usually the first to go.”
With that in mind, Kelley decided her priority was to simply survive the first week.
“I wanted to last through that first week, so I flew under the radar and found people I could trust,” she said.
“I knew not to share my thesis with the whole castle.”
“Because I think that is what makes you look suspicious as a traitor or gets you murdered for being too loud. So it was definitely a bit of a game plan.”
Kelley out among the autumn leaves.
Kelley’s approach was focused and she knew where her strengths lay.
“You stick with what you know,” she said.
“For me, that meant sticking close to the girls I connected with early on, rather than trying to win over the entire group right away.”
It was a tactic she credited to her roots as a past pupil of Loreto Letterkenny. Her friends from home laughed when they saw her strategy.
“They said, ‘That’s so like you to find a small group of girls and stick with them from day one.’ It’s really what I know coming from an all-girls’ secondary school, it just came really naturally.”
Asked about what went on behind the scenes, Kelley said the constant presence of cameras was a completely new experience.
“For the first few days, I felt like I was just staring into the lens the whole time because I was so hyper-aware that they were there,” she laughed.
But as the show progressed, she began to adjust.
“There was a cameraman in nearly every room of the castle, so if you ever walked into a room by yourself, it would just be you and the cameraman but they’re not allowed to speak to you. At first, it was a bit weird, but eventually you just get used to it.”
Between the tasks and dreaded roundtables, Kelley and the other contestants spent much of their time chatting over cups of tea, which is just so quintessentially Irish. But not all conversations were about gameplay.
“Half the time we would sit around talking about anything but the show.
“And the producers would be like, ‘Please focus, we’re in the middle of a game!’ They’d tell us, ‘We can’t show any of this if all you girls do is gossip about people back home’.”
This week has felt like the first time Kelley has returned to a sense of normality, though rumours about the show being taken over by the BBC are stirring things up again.
“It could reignite the whole thing, which would be crazy,” she laughed, adding she might have to put her Instagram on private.
The heightened visibility from the show came with its challenges. Following an off the cuff comment made during the roundtable, Kelley unexpectedly found herself at the centre of online backlash.
“People tore us apart for a simple comment and we were just playing the game.”
Though Kelley tried to steer clear of social media, it was hard to avoid.
“If I wasn’t going looking for it, people were finding me and sending it so it was hard to escape” she explained.
“It was so awful… on Wednesday people were texting me congratulations on my win – whereas just two nights before, they were sending me death threats.”
Despite the negatives, the experience has opened the door to unexpected opportunities and offered Kelley a “guiding light”.
While she doesn’t plan to dive into the world of social media stardom, the business graduate discovered a love for the behind-the-scenes aspects of the show such as filming and production.
“It’s something I could definitely see myself pursuing in the future,” Kelley said.
