Top 35 Ardal OHanlon Quotes

My mother tells me I regaled people with stories but I don’t remember that. And she disputes the idea that I might be chronically shy. She says I was the most outgoing of all of us.

I think I was always this weird, watchful kind of kid, and there was an awful lot of coming and going in my house as a result of my father being a doctor and then, later, a politician… We’d literally be having to get through the window some days because we couldn’t get in the door.

Fundamentally, I was a very shy and quiet person growing up, so it was just really difficult getting up on a stage. It was a perverse career choice really.

Before really high-pressured gigs I tend to freeze and crawl into bed. Under the covers you just feel safe for a little while.

I suppose British people generally, probably have very stereotypical notions about the Irish that go back to Victorian times.

I’ve been a Leeds fan for as long as I can remember. When you are about five or six, you adopt a team – obviously, I didn’t grow up in Leeds. I grew up in a small town on the Irish border, and most of the people my age were Leeds fans, both then and now.

All my memories of ‘Father Ted’ are very pleasant.

Where I come from people are very deadpan with a dry humour that I suppose rubbed off on me.

I couldn’t make a living as a comic in Ireland and I was watching my friends from college getting good jobs, buying houses, and I had to really take stock and say: am I going to go for this comedy thing, or what?

I think making a documentary gets you out and about more, with people. With stand-up, you’re talking at people. With documentaries you’re talking with people, and you’re listening a lot more.

Irish politicians are very accessible to the public, just the messenger boys for the local constituency.

The English, being the most practical people in the world, came up with parliamentary democracy and codified football and Cadbury’s Creme Egg. And yet they voted for Brexit.

I’m as crippled with doubt as the next actor.

I remember being chronically shy. I came out of my shell a bit when I went to university, but I’m still fairly shy in company.

I have other careers in terms of stand-up, stage acting and writing, so I don’t feel too hidebound by that, but I do quite like playing those warm roles.

I think a certain amount of depression is sort of a normal state of mind to have. Deep depression is another story – and I wouldn’t say I’ve been quite there, but you know I have been quite down at times, I have not wanted to leave the house for days on end.

I’m an ardent tennis player. I’m like an overenthusiastic child out there and I’ve damaged my back. It’s not that it’s crippling pain, more mental anguish.

Even when we had new clothes, we were told not to wear them. You just didn’t draw attention to yourself. Showing off was the worst thing you could do. We could put the clothes in the drawers – but not wear them.

People pay far too much attention to the television and they’re quite literal in some ways. At the beginning, when I was playing very stupid characters, I think people genuinely thought I was possibly quite dim-witted myself, which is a compliment in some ways, as I must have been doing my job very well.

I spent five years in Dublin as a stand-up, living on pea sandwiches. But at times I quite enjoyed the bohemian penniless existence.

I think Irish people pride themselves on being at the forefront of technological industries, things like the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, all those hi-tech industries, we’re always there or thereabouts.

The big turning point for me was a school debate in sixth year when, against all odds and to everybody’s surprise, I put myself forward… I wrote this funny speech and was determined to do my own thing, and it wasn’t on topic and people were laughing a lot. I really can’t describe how wonderful an experience it was.

We thought ‘Father Ted’ was destined to be obscure late-night Channel 4 fodder and then it works and you don’t really know why.

Irish people are still very prickly about Catholic Church. Despite all the scandals and cover-ups that have rocked the church, you can only push it so far.

There is something restless and curious about the Irish. Like everybody else, we want to make money and make our way in the world but it’s not the be all and end all. We also want to have fun, we want to make friends, make connections, share stories.

I was quite young when my dad went into politics but, as it went on, I became self-conscious about it.

I was genuinely shocked to even be in the frame for a sitcom role on British TV.

When we left university, in the late ’80s, one of the guys had been to the Comedy Store in London, came back very excited and suggested we set up something like it. And so we did.

If I was a very stable person, I would not have to do comedy. Nobody would have to listen to me.

There are lots of channels and lots of companies looking for content, as they say, but it’s quite difficult to get things off the ground.

I visit a lot of art galleries. I live in Dublin and there’s a very good gallery called the Kevin Kavanagh gallery.

I was never ideological in any sense, or a slave to any particular politics or religion. My solace and my inspiration always came from books and literature.

Johnny Giles is my favourite Leeds player, without doubt. He was a fierce competitor. I met him once, at a black-tie event in Dublin, which was one of the great nights of my life.

Tony Currie was another great favourite, even if he only played for a short time at Leeds. His wife told me once that she was a big fan of ‘My Hero’.

From day one working in TV, I have been very conscious of the way the Irish are represented, In every show I’ve been involved in I read the script, take out the Irishisms right away and say, ‘I’ll supply those’.