MAYO-BASED Kate Kerrigan is a New York Times bestselling writer.
Her one-woman play Am I Irish Yet? will tour Britain and Ireland this month.
Kate Kerrigan takes her hit show Am I Irish Yet? on tour this monthThis week Kerrigan, who lives in Killala with her husband artist Niall Kerrigan, took time out to talk to The Irish Post...
What are you up to?
Touring my one-woman show Am I Irish Yet? round the country.
Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine?
My Lagan Love sung by Sinéad O'Connor
Which writer has most influenced you?
Patrick McCabe - both personally and professionally.
What’s on your smartphone playlist at the minute?
Eclectic mix of Irish-London music: from The Pogues to Big Tom - Four Country Roads is my current humming obsession.
Who is your favourite author?
Agatha Christie. My Auntie Sheila introduced her to me as a child and she is my constant love.
What’s your favourite film?
Gone With The Wind.
What are your Irish roots?
My father's family are from Longford and my mother’s Mayo. Mam returned to the house she grew up in in Ballina and I write there every day.
What is your favourite place in Ireland?
The North West Mayo Coast. I have a particular affinity with Achill and Belmullet which is full of returned second-generation Irish.
Which book has really moved you?
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe - the painful unflinching truth of it is remarkable.
Favourite actor?
Maggie Smith RIP. I could literally watch her in anything. She makes the posh English amusing and human.
Which living person do you most admire?
Mary Robinson. An unstoppable force for good. Also, she's from Ballina so I can boast about my grandfather knowing her father!
Which person from the past do you most admire?
Jesus Christ. For centuries, his teachings have been hijacked, twisted into rules and moral codes to serve dubious religious powers - yet the Christian legacy of love, acceptance and kindness towards all people endures beneath it all.
What would be your motto?
Don't sweat the small stuff.
Have you a favourite quote from a play that you’ve taken part in?
I’ve only ever performed Am I Irish Yet? - and my favourite line to deliver is: “I'm Irish enough for me.”
What books are on your bedside table at the minute?
On Our Knees: Famine in the Killala Diocese by Fr.Brendan Hoban.
My Father’s Wake by Kevin Toolis
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie
In terms of inanimate objects, what is your most precious possession?
My eldest son gifted me a hideous teddy wearing a pink dressing gown when he was four. Embarrassingly, twenty years later, I cannot sleep without it.
What’s best thing about where you live?
Everybody knows everybody’s business - gossip is gold for a writer.
. . . . and the worst?
Everybody knows everybody’s business!
What’s the greatest lesson life has taught you?
Take time to stop and stare.
What do you believe in?
The everyday, underrated business of just being kind.
What do you consider the greatest work of art?
Faure’s Requiem Mass.
Who/what is the greatest love of your life?
My husband Niall. I exist in a constant creative spin and he is my anchor. He gifted me the most important things in my life - our two beautiful sons and the freedom to write.
The Am I Irish Yet? tour begins this month, for tickets and listings click here
See More: Am I Irish Yet?, Kate Kerrigan
