From senators to Irish TV stars, JOE caught up with the cast of Treasure Island to find out what they’re up to, and if they’re watching Love Island…
RTÉ’s Treasure Island aired for two seasons at the turn of the millennium, and reached over one million viewers at its peak.
It’s a concept that everyone is familiar with today, but as Ireland’s first major reality TV series, it got a lot of excitement.
Each year RTÉ sifted through over 30,000 entries, and chose 16 people that would go to an uninhabited Tongan island.
Once there, teams competed in a series of challenges, with one voted off each week. The ultimate goal? Discover buried treasure in the final episode.
Participants survived on a handful of rice and coconuts during increasingly gruelling tasks, like carrying cannons up a mountain, and paddling rafts across the sea.
From the beginning, the show was dogged with controversy. There was in-fighting, accusations of rigging, and complaints from animal rights groups.
But where are they now? And how did they re-adjust to life after the island?
JOE caught up with all the former islanders to see what they’ve been up to…
Peter Finn
If Peter looks familiar, you might have seen his more recent TV appearances.
Since finishing third in the first Treasure Island series, carpenter Finn has starred in RTE shows Room to Improve and Home Rescue.
Speaking to JOE, he describes “going into the unknown”, on Ireland’s first reality TV show. Then going “from one hell of being on Treasure Island to another hell of working with Dermot Bannon!”
After the series ended, Peter feuded with winner Yvonne. However, he looks back on the show now as an amazing experience. He’s still a fan of reality TV, and admits to watching Love Island – despite pretending he doesn’t.
Yvonne Cronin
“Treasure Island was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, that island was so beautiful” Yvonne says down the phone, “even with the annoying blokes”.
Cronin was the winner of a £50,000 cash prize, having finished in first place.
Despite later struggling with “outlandish rumours and with other people’s opinions”, she never regretted taking part.
“It helped me completely change my career, I went back to study marine biology and oceanography” she says.
Nowadays, she works as a researcher of offshore wind energy.
As it happens, Love Island is a little tame for Yvonne’s reality TV tastes.
She prefers Discovery Channel series Naked and Afraid where strangers spend weeks together naked in a jungle, a show she describes as “Treasure Island on speed.”
Tom Barton
The most controversial cast member from Treasure Island season one.
During his time on the island, Barton had regular shouting matches with fellow islanders on camera.
The controversy didn’t stop when he finished in second place. The following year, Barton accused RTE of rigging the programme, landing himself with a €1.27 million fine.
He hit the headlines again just a few months later when someone attempted to shoot him.
Despite everything, Barton still stands by everything he said about the show.
“If you can’t be fair and honest from the start in these programmes, where can you be fair and honest in life?” he asks.
“These shows are all rigged as far as I’m concerned, and it’s not right.”
Mark Daly
Mark Daly is another Treasure Islander who remained in the public eye after his time on the show.
Having placed third in the second season, the Kerry native sought his fortunes elsewhere, running for Seanad elections in 2007.
Despite his career in politics, Daly hasn’t lost touch with his reality TV roots.
Last Christmas he invited the contestants from his season for dinner in Leinster House.
Regarding Love Island, he says:
“That crowd only have one thing on their mind. We only had one thing on our mind too; the hunger!”
Daly notes that he worries about “the girl from Longford” and the “choice words” her mother is going to have for her.
Sean Paul Teeling
Sean Paul Teeling speaks mostly fondly about the island.
“I remember the kaleidoscope of stars, the migration of crabs and the beautiful lagoon” he tells us.
Teeling now works as a lecturer in UCD, where people still say they recognise him from the show.
This is due to a clip featured in a 2002 episode of Reeling in the Years where he sings in his underwear while pretending to be Bond Girl Ursula Andress.
Showing off his singing skills paid off for him, as he featured in later RTÉ productions like The Lyrics Board and Open House.
Teeling reckons that the bodybuilder boys of Love Island wouldn’t be able to hack Treasure Island, as despite being a “vegetarian wimp” he outlasted such types in the RTÉ show.
He remains proud of his choice not to eat animals killed on the show, a big source of complaints at the time.
Sean O’Brien and Bee Duffy
“We were only 22 or 23 when we met, when you look back now it’s crazy”, recalls Sean O’Brien, winner of the second season.
After winning the €50,000 cash prize (they’d switched up to euro by then), he went on to marry runner-up Bee Duffy.
Almost two decades later and the couple are still married. They spent their winnings on a milking parlour and live now in Midleton in Cork with five children and one more on the way.
O’Brien and Duffy say they enjoyed “a few months of opening things” once they returned, including the Rose of Tralee.
They also appeared on a New Zealand version of the show.
Despite being accused of ‘milking’ their minor celebrity status back in 2004, the pair have put it to good use.
Bee is opening her own outdoor schools in Cork, named Oak Outdoor Active Kids.
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