It\u2019s a cool, overcast April day, and McSweeney<\/a> has been at Slane Castle filming a key episode of The Traitors\u2019 highly anticipated second season, which begins on RT\u00c9 next weekend<\/a>, and she\u2019s still wearing some of her glamorous on-screen jewellery. Right now, though, she\u2019s shivering in the back room of a nearby hotel.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just out of a mission, and I\u2019m frozen,\u201d she says, referring to one of the challenges set for this year\u2019s participants. \u201cThe Irish weather was for us last year, but it\u2019s been very temperamental this time.\u201d<\/p>\n At this point in filming, only seven of the 24 original contestants remain in the game of deduction, in which \u201cfaithful\u201d players must identify the \u201ctraitors\u201d in the group before the traitors eliminate them. The \u20ac50,000 prize pot goes to whoever is left standing.<\/p>\n Anything could happen, according to McSweeney. \u201cThis is the time in the game when contestants, if they are a team, try to branch out.\u201d If, on the other hand, a contestant has been a lone wolf, \u201cthey try to come back into the herd. So there\u2019s an awful lot of movement happening. It\u2019s really moving up a gear, and it has to: we\u2019re coming very close to the final.\u201d<\/p>\n The final of the first season, last September, was watched by 732,000 viewers \u2013 57 per cent of everyone who was in front of a television in Ireland at the time. The programme prompted memes, merchandise and water-cooler conversations.<\/p>\n Its breakout star was Paudie Moloney<\/a>, a retired prison officer who became so well-known from appearing on The Traitors that he went on to compete on Dancing with the Stars.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like the nation\u2019s grandad,\u201d McSweeney says.<\/p>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, for this season \u201cwe had over 120 prison guards apply to be on the show\u201d, says Darren Smith of Kite Entertainment, the production company that makes the series for RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had some brilliant older guys apply \u2013 and in a heartbeat you\u2019d put them in any show, but it just felt like it would be a bit try-hard, like we were looking for another Paudie.\u201d<\/p>\n What made Moloney such a hit? <\/p>\n \u201cHe was a man who didn\u2019t come on board this show to get a celebrity life. And I think that was part of the appeal. He wasn\u2019t somebody who\u2019s coming in to get his influence and his followers.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u00a0The Paudfather, breakout star of The Traitors, on winning hearts with his Irish-dad energyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n After finding a diamond in the rough in Moloney, what kind of people did Kite look for to take part in the new season?<\/p>\n \u201cYou get a couple of the fame chasers, and it\u2019s okay to have a couple of them in the mix, so you know that they are represented. We cast 24 people, and within that 24 you want all types,\u201d Smith says. <\/p>\n \u201cOne of the beauties of this show is there\u2019s no shortage of applications. We had over 8,000 this year, so it\u2019s an embarrassment of riches in terms of what comes in, and then you start deciding case by case.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of background checking going on. There\u2019s a lot of psychological testing. Are they robust enough? There\u2019s a huge amount of duty of care that goes into these things.\u201d<\/p>\n Slane Castle, which over the past 45 years has been best known for hosting big outdoor concerts by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Queen, David Bowie, U2 and Madonna, among many others, has also become a star of the show, its James Gandon architecture forming the backdrop to the contestants\u2019 lies, betrayal and challenges.<\/p>\n Unlike some other international iterations of The Traitors \u2013 the original Dutch programme has spawned about 40 versions around the world \u2013 Slane Castle has a room big enough for the round table where contestants gather to say who they believe is a traitor and therefore deserves to be eliminated from the competition.<\/p>\n Before they settled on the castle as the home of The Traitors Ireland, Kite had been expecting \u201cto have to build this spiegeltent and put the round room outdoors, and we had weather concerns about that, as you can imagine\u201d, Smith says. <\/p>\n He\u2019s delighted with the Co Meath venue. \u201cThe estate, the land \u2013 I mean, we are the envy of many, many other Traitors locations,\u201d he says, adding that Kite will be filming a third season at Slane in 2027.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/T44W33LUBNFHDGBOIMTBA754UM.png\")
Paudie Maloney with fellow contestant Christine Duff from The Traitors Ireland 2025 <\/p>\n![\"Siobhán](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/J3RV4XECTZBGXMO4Q4XSKLPVKA.jpg\")
Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney at Slane Castle: ‘It would be lovely if there was even an iota of the same response as we had last year.’ Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n