My dad IS a hugger... but how did I not see he was a Traitor?

He was lied to, betrayed, and blackmailed by his cunning father - but Andrew Moloney insists he doesn’t have any ‘daddy issues’ after his memorable stint on hit TV show The Traitors Ireland.

Despite that rap sheet, the Cork contestant still adores his da’ Paudie, and shrugs that his treachery was “all part of the game”.

When I spoke to Andrew this week, he also laughed off the remark by his father on the show on Monday that he isn’t a “f***ing hugger”.

“Sure, he hugged me on the show,” he laughs. “Dad is sound, he’s a nice dad, great craic, he was always there for me growing up and very supportive. My mam Bernadette’s the same.”

Traitor Paudie is the stand-out star of the series so far - a kind of everyman, everydad figure; not surprisingly, Andrew still wanted him to win the €50,000 first prize when I chatted to him soon after he was banished by the Faithful, after being blackmailed by his dad into becoming a fellow Traitor.

“I want dad to win,” said Andrew, “but of the Faithful, I’d back Amy or Christine.”

Then, on Tuesday, Paudie himself got banished, along with Christine Duff - Cork’s last hope of success in the show!

We can claim nice guy Andrew has one of our own on Leeside. He has lived in Douglas for four years and married Aisling, an Inchigeelagh woman. They are expecting their first child in October.

He and Paudie, of Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, kept their kinship secret throughout the show - having both been stunned when they saw each other on the opening day of filming. It was a wise move, as any obvious alliances would surely have been punished by Faithful and Traitor alike.

Father and son both enjoyed early series of The Traitors, and when casting began for the Irish version, Andrew put the application form up on the family WhatsApp group.

“Dad just gave it a thumbs up,” he says, which, let’s be honest, is usually about as communicative as dads get on that app!

Both their applications were accepted unbeknownst to each other, and both were sworn to silence, telling just their other halves... so at what stage did the producers realise the family connection?

Andrew has one theory.

“We both have malignant hyperthermia, a genetic reaction to general anesthetic drugs, and put that on our application forms,” he says. “So they may have noticed that.

“And I wrote down that my nephew (Shane O’Brien) is a Limerick senior hurler, and dad said his grandson plays for Limerick. So that could have given them the link too.

“The producers were sneaky feckers,” laughs Andrew, a civil servant in the Department of Enterprise, who blends his work between Cork and Dublin.

As for his dad being a traitor from the start, Andrew said: “I should have known when he said he was ‘100% a Faithful’! How didn’t I see it?! I did have my suspicions but I couldn’t be certain.”

It was when Paudie was getting worked up during the conclaves that Andrew really noticed a difference in his character - at one stage he even shushed him like an embarrassed adult child, which luckily went unnoticed by the others at the table.

As for the best advice he can give people taking part in The Traitors, Andrew says: “Bring your inklings to the table, don’t hold your suspicions in. If you’re right and get a traitor, the traitors are unlikely to murder you, and if you are wrong, the traitors are still unlikely to murder you!”

It’s sound advice, but there are so many twists and turns in the series that it is hard to say if the tactic will pay off. My own feeling is you have to stay off the radar, especially in the early weeks - and I stand by my initial tip Ben to win for that reason.

Ultimately, it’s only a game - “and everyone is so positive and nice”,” adds Andrew, the youngest in a family of four with three sisters. “I’m the baby boy,” he laughs, “I was spoilt.”

Not by his father in recent weeks he wasn’t... there should be some interesting conversations around the Moloney family table this Christmas!

Meanwhile, despite appearing in three episodes of The Traitors Ireland, another Cork contestant, fireman John Malone, discovered fame had still passed him by.

“I walked up and down Patrick Street after the shows aired, and I didn’t get a second glance from anyone,” laughs John. “Not that I was looking for the attention, I was shopping,” adds the affable Youghal man.

John has two sons, Dean, 31, and Adam, 29, and both enjoyed watching their da on the show, while his two grandsons are too young to appreciate their grandad’s fleeting brush with TV fame.

Explaining his decision to appear on the series, John adds: “I like to test boundaries, and put myself out there. I didn’t do it for money or fame.”

He is a firefighter for the Cork city brigade and admits he got a slagging from his colleagues for his brief stint in reality TV - “but I would have got a slagging anyway,” he adds, “there is always lots of black humour and banter on our work WhatsApp group.”

John’s big regret from the show was giving the shield to Traitor Katelynn. “She should have had my back in return,” he says, “but she was playing the game, the silent assassin - and she is lovely.”

I ask John if he and and the other contestants know who the winner is - “If I told you, would you believe me anyway?” he laughs.

But he did say he wanted the winner to come from Nick, and Ben - the duo he felt he would have bonded with had he survived as a Faithful for long enough.

John found out he had landed a part in the show on Valentine’s Day, and filming took place in late March and early April. Was it hard to keep it a secret that long?

“I just told my partner, Teresa,” says John, “and she said she felt like more of a traitor than me for keeping it hidden!

“Ahead of filming, I told my family I was going away for a while on a fire brigade course, and I told work I was going to France with my family!”

John was in Bali on holiday when we spoke - “we climbed up a volcano in the dark at 3am this morning” - but says he has still gained a sense of how much the show has impacted on people back home.