Next-of-kin: Sybil Mulcahy and best pal Lizzie Lynch

TV presenter SYBIL MULCAHY and best friend LIZZIE LYNCH

TV viewers are used to the sight of Sybil Mulcahy sparking off her male co-presenter Martin King on TV3’s The Morning Show. But while the pair have been entertaining fans with their on-screen chemistry for the past year, in reality Sybil is all about having a good set of girlfriends.

“There are about eight of us who are still close and in touch from our school days and Lizzie is chief among them,” she says of best pal Lizzie Lynch. The pair met when they both moved to the same primary school at the age of ten. “We didn’t know anyone else so we gravitated towards each other,” says Sybil.

Lizzie feels the pair actually had a lot in common from the get-go. They are both from large families headed by strong matriarchies. Lizzie adds: “I think it was probably expected of both of us that we’d become lawyers and marry doctors!”

The career paths they did take put thousands of miles between them in their early 20s. Lizzie, who works for Goldman Sachs, lived in London for many years. “I still don’t have a clue what her job entails,” confesses Sybil, “I just know that it involved a lot of jetsetting and she earns about four times what I do.”

Lizzie claims they are both impressed with each other’s success. “Mine is the serious boring job but Sybil’s is much more glamorous.”

When Lizzie was in London, Sybil ended up in the States for five years. “She met a guy there and started doing TV work, so we thought we were going to lose Sybil to Ohio,” says Lizzie.

However, both girls ended up back in Dublin and fell easily back into the friendship. “I think it’s not just a case of shared history,” says Lizzie. “Sybil and I genuinely enjoy each other’s company and when we’re together we can get back to who we are.”

Sybil insists that she was “the messer” of the two of them in school. “I was suspended from school for two weeks once but she wasn’t bold at all. She would have been very academic and kept the head down.”

Lizzie argues: “Neither of us were model pupils. We were BOTH suspended at different stages. It was nothing malicious, just high spirits, and coming towards the end of the six years we knuckled down. Actually Sybil was a very good netball player in school.”

Now both women have families of their own – Sybil has two children and Lizzie has three – but see each other at the weekends. “We both love drinking wine, having a laugh, shopping,” says Sybil.

Their lively relationship is not untouched by the odd argument. “Mostly after a few drinks,” they chime.

“The only time we row is about politics,” says Sybil. “We had some humdingers about that. She would always have been a real Fianna Fail head during the Celtic Tiger and I would be going on about corruption and brown envelopes.”

Lizzie says the disagreements are healthy because they are both honest and open types. “Sybil wears her heart on her sleeve but she doesn’t bear a grudge.

“Most of all she’s just great fun. When I was her bridesmaid with another friend, we got a Wonder Woman outfit for her to wear on her hen. With someone else you might have to bully them into it but Sybil needed no persuasion. The boots were on in minutes, the cape over the shoulder, bold as brass. She is just as much fun as she was when we were kids.”
ENDS