I don’t think I related to the Irish Catholic surroundings that was my environment when I was growing up.
Supporting Celtic, waving a tricolour because your parents are Irish – that’s a valid culture.
I think that’s why you see so many Americans in Dublin look so sad: they are looking for the door through which they can begin to understand this place. I tell them, ‘Go to the races.’ I think it’s the best place to start understanding the Irish.
One of the big things for me that’s been exciting is seeing the Asian-American community coming out, because I’m Filipino and Swedish and Irish.
I saw my mother crying for the first time, which made a huge impression on me, when I came home from kindergarten, and she was watching TV because JFK – that Irish Catholic president that we loved – had been killed.
They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart.
American audiences are great. They get what I am doing, but as my band will tell you, nowhere tops the Irish audience. They are just brilliant. They are very open, but the Americans and Spanish come a close second.
My usual trick with the Irish plays is to set things on islands I’ve never been to.
Law enforcement’s biased view of the Irish lives on in the nickname we still use for the vehicles we use to transport groups of prisoners. It is, after all, the ‘paddy wagon.’ The Irish had tough times, but little compares to the experience on our soil of black Americans.
On my mum Marie’s side, my nana was from the Republic of Ireland, and my granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections, but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.
I’m an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt.
I’m really not big on nationalism, to be honest with you. I really don’t think it gets people anywhere except near a pile of dead bodies. I’m Irish, yeah, but I don’t need to get up on a soapbox about it.
At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.
I go to Spain a lot, in winter, for a blast of sunlight to banish the blues brought on by the Irish greys and drizzle. I love the cities of the Spanish interior.
The title, the name Frank, comes from this extraordinary British character Frank Friedbottom. He was very big in Britain in the ’80s, but I, as an Irish kid, saw him on ‘Top of the Charts.’
I think the genetics of being Irish are that you sort of prefer when it’s rainy and cloudy. It’s just genetic.
My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking.
To make a career as an Irish actor, generally it’s the case that you move to London. When you make that move, you do tend to stand out.
Theatre has no national identity. It is something for the world, whether it is Irish, English, or French.
I would take vouchers, do sums in my head just to get some eggs and bread or a tin of cheap Irish stew. I’d be starving and want two tins but couldn’t afford it. The poorer you are the hungrier you feel.
