How agreeable are you?
In work I’m very agreeable and open and amenable to different ideas. At home they would say I say “no” a lot. If they can get me to a “maybe” I think that’s usually success for them.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
Liam. I love it. I like having a strong middle name. I think it’s a strong Irish name.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
Home, Donegal Town. There’s a couple of beaches nearby that are just spectacular. Our house overlooks Donegal Bay. I love being back there. It just changes the world for me when I’m looking out over the ocean.
Describe yourself in three words.
Honest. Caring. Hard-working.
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When did you last get angry?
Probably two weeks ago. A certain complaint came in that was just so beyond the pale, the way we’re treating some children in particular. A child was getting a service in place A and then through no circumstance, no fault of their own, they moved to place B and they couldn’t get the same service.
What we want is children to be able to get proper services wherever they are in the country, not just to be lucky in one place and unlucky in another. I think geographical lotteries shouldn’t be part of children’s lives. Wherever they are, wherever they live, they should be able to get equal access to everything. We’re still not where we need to be with children, particularly given our economic status. We are such a financially secure country, democratically sound. We should be doing much more for our children in need.
There was absolutely no mention of planning for family homelessness and taking people out of family homelessness in the budget. There is still no mention of specific actions to be taken in regards to mental health – there is an increase in budget, but not a change in the system in the way that we’d like to have. Child poverty, progress has been made on that, no doubt about it, but what we did with the double child benefit, the ESRI said 40,000 children could have been taken out of poverty if they’d been much more directed with that, as opposed to giving it to everybody. That’s a policy and political choice that looks like it’s buying votes, as opposed to doing the right thing.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
My dad. It’s 30 years since he passed. There’s a few things across my lifetime I’d have loved him to have been there for. He was only 66 and he never saw any of us with kids. He never saw any of them growing up.
What’s your strongest childhood memory?
I’m showing my age here. We all used to have our tea around the table together. There were six of us around the table. About once or twice a year, something would happen and everyone would start laughing. My dad used to have these fabulous white teeth and he used to laugh so hard that you could see the fangs. He’d get lost in one of these laughs you just can’t get out of. Because he was laughing, everyone else was laughing. It was just one of those ad hoc, impromptu situations that I just remember.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order, and has this defined you?
I’m the third of four and I don’t know if it’s defined me. I think I turned out to be a peacekeeper type person. A mediator. My siblings and my mother might say different!
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I like this idea that you just carry on in people’s memories. What I’m trying to achieve in life now, as I get closer to that age where you look at your mortality, is I’d like to know, if I was to pass tomorrow, “am I happy with what I’ve done?”, and “have I contributed something?” What happens afterwards I’m not quite sure. I’m spiritual. I believe in the afterlife. I talk to people who’ve passed.
When were you happiest?
I try to be happy all the time. Different stages of my life have given different types of happiness. I loved living in Donegal. I loved when I moved to Dublin. I loved when I moved to London. I loved when I was single. I love being married. I love having kids. I just try to be content with what’s happening in life. I’m probably happiest now. Things are in good shape and I’m very happy personally and career-wise.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
If it was the 1970s I would have said John Wayne, but now Brendan Gleeson – the character he is, and what he represents too. As well as being a great actor.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
I don’t have them. I don’t do regrets. I try to live my life figuring out what I’m going to do each step at a time, and whatever way I go, I go, and let the cards fall. I try not to live looking back.
Have you any psychological quirks?
Am I going to say this to The Irish Times? A long time ago when I was a young teenager I used to work in a wholesale department. I’d have to bring down crates of cans and different stuff. It was an old building and there were three or four sets of stairs and you’d be carrying so much you couldn’t see the stairs and they were rickety and rackety. So, I would count them, and I knew what number of stairs were on each one. For some reason when I go down stairs now, I still count stairs. Nobody knew that until now. I used to do it in my head!
