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the traitors ireland
‘Not everyone's cup of tea because I'm champagne’: Faithful Laura on her ‘mixed’ reception
Laura said that she was ‘unapologetically myself’ in the castle.
*WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of season two of The Traitors (Ireland).*
THE TRAITORS IRELAND got off to a great start for the faithfuls when they successfully banished a traitor at the first time of asking.
Most contestants praised Laura, who was later murdered by the traitors, for leading the charge and banishing Donegal’s Edelle at the first time of asking.
“To get a traitor on the first night, whether she was a traitor or not on day one, it’s still a victory in my eyes,” Laura told a group of journalists this week.
She was speaking alongside Sean A, who became the first faithful to be banished.
He described Laura as a “super sleuth” and said his days in Slane Castle were numbered after she pre-emptively pinned her murder on him as she left the castle for what turned out to be the final time.
As for his own game plan, Sean A remarked that it was “death or glory” after a “slip of the tongue” saw him tell the roundtable that he was trying to catch faithfuls instead of traitors.
“It turned out to be death,” he added.
The Traitors Ireland returns tonight for another slate of three episodes over Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Tonight’s episode will start with a so-called “soft kill, nice and gentle”, as we see who the traitors decided to murder out of a short list of Aoife, Ian or Saoirse.
‘Not everyone’s cup of tea’
Laura’s murder in episode three came very much to the delight of fellow faithful Kayleigh.
Kayleigh remarked that she “had some strawberries and a croissant to celebrate” Laura’s murder.
“I felt like a weight was lifted,” she added. “I was delighted she was gone.”
When asked about Kayleigh’s reaction, Laura remarked that she “might have to have a word with her at the wrap party”.
She said she was “surprised” by Kayleigh’s reaction.
“I got on so great with Kayleigh in the castle,” said Laura, “but at the same time I get it.”
Laura said she was “putting the faithfuls under pressure to prove they were faithful when it was the traitors I was trying to find”.
“But maybe just a little bit more kindness might have been nice in her delivery,” she added of Kayleigh’s reaction to her murder.
“I get it at the same time, but we’ll have a little drink at the wrap party, and it’ll be all good.”
Sean A quipped that he’ll be on hand to “referee that”.
Meanwhile, it was put to Laura by a reporter over the videocall that she has something of a “marmite” personality, and she acknowledged that there has been a “mix” in reaction to her online.
“That’s fine and I have a saying: ‘I’m not everyone’s cup of tea because I’m champagne’.
“That’s the that’s the way I see it, everyone’s entitled to their opinion and if I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, that’s totally fine.”
She added that she was “unapologetically myself” and that the reaction has been much more positive than negative.
“I am a confident girl, and I think that definitely came across.
“I would rather it have been a true reflection of myself than me coming across as somebody different.”
However, she encouraged viewers to remember “that it is a game, and what you see is not the real person, you’re seeing a snapshot”.
“It would be just lovely if people could remember to be a little bit more kind,” she adds.
“Challenge the gameplay, that’s totally fine, but the more personal stuff is a bit more hard-hitting, and that has been the difficult side of it.”
Sean A added: “Play the ball and not the man.”
‘Come out swinging’
Sean A meanwhile said he “knew I’d put a target on my back when I stood up and tried to be chivalrous and defend Edelle”.
He added that he only realised how dire the situation looked for himself when he got into the breakfast room the next morning.
“I thought, ‘oh God, I’m in a hole here’. So, what did I do? I dug the hole even deeper.
“My whole strategy was to come out swinging, come out absolutely certain that it was Donal.
“But coming back from the challenge, I knew the game was up so I decided to have a bit of fun with it.”
He added: “I was going to go out swinging, and I certainly wasn’t going to go just shrugging my shoulders and saying, ‘ah, well, sure, whatever’.
“I was going to go down with a fight, that was my plan.
“The way I looked at it, it was death or glory, and it turned out to be death.”
New Zealand cover story
Laura said that the cover story she had concocted to explain her absence while she was playing The Traitors was that she was visiting her sister in New Zealand.
But after a swift exit from the castle, Laura returned home and closed the blinds.
“I actually had to stay in my house, because I was meant to be in New Zealand.
“The blinds were down, I couldn’t leave, and then I texted a few of the girls like, ‘I’m going to come home early, this is just not the vibe’.”
Sean A meanwhile said it is something of a relief to be banished early.
“It’s such strong and powerful experience to go through,” he said, “but the biggest thing is constant vigilance to not let anything leak at all.
“So the relief you get when you can now talk openly about things is just great.”
He added that it is taking some adjustment to get used to his newfound fame.
“My wife said, ‘Sean was just himself on that show’, and she’s had to put up with it for 40-odd years, so why shouldn’t the public have to put up with it for a couple of days?”
18-hour days
While the show is distilled into an hour or so, the contestants say they can face 18-hour days.
Sean A said the “intensity” of the game came as a surprise.
“The days are extremely long, and two days ago these people were strangers to you, and now you’re pretty much living with them.
“It’s just that pressure cooker, everything is fast-forwarded and things that may take a week or two in the real world to talk to people about, you’re talking after two hours about.”
Laura added that she was surprised at the friendships she made while in the castle.
“I was going in like, ‘let’s play this game’, but I think had I stayed in longer, I would have struggled with the relationships that I was making to separate the player from the game.”
Who will win?
Laura said she has no idea who will win but remarked that Janet and David stand out as two “strong” faithfuls.
However, she said traitors Páraic K and Carla could “pull it out of the bag” and that there already seems to be a divide with the third original traitor, Fionula.
Meanwhile, Sean A remarked that “not for the first time, Laura and I are going to disagree”.
He said he can’t see the “three traitors we currently have getting much further” and that “one of them is going to trip up” as there is already some “friction” that could get bigger.
As for the faithfuls, he said Pete, the investigator with the Defence Forces, is a “strong player” who is “coming to the fore”.
Sean A also pointed to Denis as “one to watch”, as well as Kayleigh.
“Kayleigh is very popular as well, and she is sort of unpredictable.”
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