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00:00:16Hello everybody, you're all very welcome to the show and I hope you enjoy what happens here over
00:00:21the next hour or so. And to find out who our first guest is, let me hand you over to
00:00:25our MC for the
00:00:27evening, the beautiful Fred Cook. Thank you, Tommy. Well, on K.E. here on the floor now, Mr. Dermot Kennedy.
00:00:39How's it going? Oh, nice to meet you. Yeah, yeah, good now.
00:00:47Where are you from? I'm from Dublin, the outskirts of Dublin, yeah. Almost Kildare.
00:00:51Ah, yeah. I saw you for the first time recently at that hot press thing. Exactly, yeah.
00:00:57You were singing a couple of Cranberry songs. Exactly. How was that like?
00:01:03It's daunting and it's very flattering to be part of at all, you know. And it's an honour to be
00:01:09asked.
00:01:10And I think I spend most of my time when I'm up there marvelling at how good the songs are.
00:01:14Genuinely. Dreams in particular, I'm just like. And I kind of, you know, I look out at fans and just
00:01:19how
00:01:19much it means to them after all these years. You know, as somebody, I do that with my own music
00:01:24and
00:01:24I see different reactions and stuff, but you can see, I don't know, with the Cranberry's
00:01:27tunes, it's just effortless, you know. It's kind of anthemic, is that the word, you know.
00:01:32Especially when you're only doing, I think, was it three, maybe four? Four songs, yeah.
00:01:35Are you, are you big in other parts of the world?
00:01:38Eh, not really. In my own opinion, I think like, I'm at a stage where, I don't know, like
00:01:46in the States I'd play big gigs. When you say, when you say big, what do you mean?
00:01:50What's the biggest? In Toronto we did 16,000, which is, that was a big one. Eh, we've done
00:01:55Red Rocks a few times, stuff like that. So yeah, I do, I have these moments all the time,
00:02:00particularly in the States. I was playing for a football team in New York, called the New
00:02:03York Shamrocks, and a fellow was asking me if I had any gigs in New York and I said,
00:02:07yeah, we're doing Madison Square Garden. And he said... When you say you're playing for a football team,
00:02:11what do you mean? Playing for a team that's based there, mostly Irish guys, the New York Shamrocks,
00:02:16yeah. So you went, you went over and as part of the tour experience... Sorry, I was there
00:02:22recording. Ah, right. And I was like, I'm here long enough to join a football team, yeah. Yeah,
00:02:26yeah, it was deadly. And your man said, where are you... Arrogance of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was
00:02:34sort of said, where are you playing? Hang on, I'm not letting this go. So did you, who did you
00:02:39phone to
00:02:40organise this? I'm trying to remember. I bumped into a guy in a pub who knew, who we started
00:02:46talking about football and he knew a guy I used to play with here in Crumlin, in Dublin. All right.
00:02:51Who was now playing in New York, so that was my link. Were you handy enough as a soccer player?
00:02:55I was all right. It was never... It was, of course, what I wanted to do, but it was never
00:03:00realistic, no.
00:03:03But I'm decent. I wouldn't be, like, very good, but good enough.
00:03:09In terms of songwriting now, what kind of stuff do you find yourself writing about?
00:03:16Oh, it can be anything. What I think about quite a lot now is, say, for me, I think,
00:03:23like, if I draw on my own experiences, love and loss, and I feel very nostalgic when I write,
00:03:29you know, I feel like when I think about, like, time I spend with my friends and all that sort
00:03:32of stuff.
00:03:32But also, what I think is quite interesting now is if my circle is very small, say, family
00:03:38and close friends, what I'm always conscious of is I'm the one that has this outlet to write
00:03:44about it and go sing and tour and all that sort of stuff. But, you know, like, I've seen
00:03:50my mother go through a good day or anybody go through a bad day, and we all have these feelings,
00:03:53but I have this lovely outlet. So in the least sort of trite way possible, I do truly believe
00:04:00I bring them on stage with me in a way, you know, and I sing from their perspective,
00:04:03and that can be very meaningful for me.
00:04:05Ah, right. So not all the songs are from, the I in the song isn't always you?
00:04:10Oh, certainly not, yeah.
00:04:11Wow.
00:04:11Yeah, quite a bit, I would say.
00:04:14That's a great gift of empathy, isn't it?
00:04:18But it's nice because sometimes if I, it can get very sort of self-indulgent, I guess,
00:04:23if it's just about me the whole time. And I think similarly, it could lose meaning if it was fiction.
00:04:28So it's this nice kind of halfway where I can really, really, really care about it. But, um,
00:04:33but still, it's not necessarily me the whole time.
00:04:37Do you have a sense that in the music business, and maybe in lots of other kind of cultural stuff,
00:04:43that people get very big, unusually big, unusually quickly, but then that it just kind of goes very
00:04:53quickly as well. Do you have, is there a sense of that, or is there a fear of that in
00:04:58what you're doing?
00:05:00I've never had a song that's all over every radio station in America. I've never had it like a global
00:05:06hit, really, you know, and I've had songs that some people might know, and they might be big-ish,
00:05:11but never that scary viral moment, you know, um, which is something I could kind of
00:05:19yearn for. But at the same time, it's, it's sort of made it more of a slog for me touring
00:05:24wise and
00:05:24stuff. And it's been more of a step by, do you know the way an awful lot of people go
00:05:27from here
00:05:27to here very quickly? I've kind of done everything in between, I think. And, and so it just lays this
00:05:34lovely foundation where if I were to have a huge song tomorrow and then, like you said, it happens
00:05:40and then it all goes away, that foundation would still be there. I like to think, you know,
00:05:43I think an awful, I think when that happens, potentially artists haven't
00:05:46necessarily had the journey to that foundation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:50Can you be a bit of a tit on tour? Me? Yeah.
00:05:53No, but like, no, I don't think so. But I liked it. You see, it's tricky. You're sort of faced
00:06:00with
00:06:01certain tricky things because I've always been so determined to, for it to feel like a band and
00:06:08for it to feel like everybody looks after each other and dah, dah, dah, which gets harder as
00:06:11you go from 10 people to 30 and then 50 and to some degree you have to let go, do
00:06:16you know?
00:06:17But I think, I think it's like, sometimes you have to just be realistic and think like, no,
00:06:24this is, I guess this is a solo artist project, do you know? And, and you can't always be like,
00:06:28guys, we're a band, aren't we? Cause you know, ultimately when it comes down to it,
00:06:32it's not, it's under my name. And I do an awful lot of the heavy lifting and all that sort
00:06:35of
00:06:35stuff, but also I get the praise and my name is on the thing. So you just have to be
00:06:39realistic,
00:06:40I think. And in terms of,
00:06:45like if you're going into a band situation and it's the difference between going,
00:06:51I want, and then I want, and how about, as opposed to, well, what do you think? What,
00:06:57what would you like to do? Oh, I couldn't. Yeah. You know,
00:06:59and we do have a lovely sort of democratic thing and everybody's very invested and all that sort
00:07:02of stuff. But yeah, I wouldn't, I don't think I would do very well if I was kind of like,
00:07:06are you guys okay with this? Democracy of, it's not you too? No. Which,
00:07:11no, they tell us is a democracy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:07:18Tell us about growing up in Kildare. Well, growing up in Dublin, but
00:07:23cycling into Kildare regularly. Yeah. So where did you go to school then?
00:07:26I went to school in Rathcool. In Skullcronon, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:07:30So in primary school and then in Rathcool as well for secondary school. But I like,
00:07:34it's very idyllic. I do, I write about it an awful lot. Essentially, where I grew up and where I
00:07:40live
00:07:40now is very remote and feels like the middle of nowhere. And the magic bit was two of my best
00:07:46friends, Niall and Roe, lived that side of the hill and that side of the hill. So it was just
00:07:50constantly in
00:07:51each other's houses. Yeah, I was class. I'm very lucky. You know, I think about it, you know,
00:07:54like at that age, such a crucial time in your life and took an awful lot for granted. And I
00:07:59think about
00:07:59my friendships being that solid and, you know, huge part of who I am now, I would say.
00:08:04Do you think that becoming very well-known in a way puts a barrier between you and people you knew
00:08:09growing up? No, it's the exact same. Like, like truly, I'm lucky enough to like, I don't know if
00:08:19this makes sense, but you know, when say obviously being doing what I do is very social and you bump
00:08:24into people an awful lot and there's a ton of people you'd say, that's my friend and that's my
00:08:26friend. But then at home, you're like, no, those are my friends. That's those are my like friends
00:08:32from when I was a child. So I know it's a sort of cliche thing, but it is true. You
00:08:36know it very well.
00:08:37It's just like when you go out and you perform in a room to thousands of people and it's this
00:08:42euphoric thing and it's like, all right, go to bed on the bus because you have to do it again
00:08:46tomorrow. You know, it's quite strange. It's made those tears very clear to me. You know,
00:08:51like I could hang out with someone five times and we could call each other friends, but it's not that
00:08:54thing, you know? And I think that was solid enough before I had a career in music that it stayed
00:08:59the
00:09:00same. And I don't know what the lads maybe would tell you different and they would say I've changed,
00:09:03but I would hope not, you know, it feels the same. So that's good.
00:09:06What's the physical feeling of euphoria on stage?
00:09:12It's like little moments where it shows up.
00:09:14Okay. What's going on in your body? Can you tell me? Like physically, how does it feel?
00:09:21Physically? Physically, I feel all right. It's not like a racing heart or anything. It's just,
00:09:26it's generally, it's just playback of my life. And I'm just kind of thinking like, wow,
00:09:31like it did work out, you know, like, I really do. Like, say for example, when I played Marley
00:09:37Park a few years ago, I went to like a B stage like this with a piano on it. And
00:09:42there was a guy,
00:09:43a young guy out in the crowd and his dad put him up his shoulders and he had a crumbling
00:09:46jersey on.
00:09:47And I'd say he was about eight or nine years old, but that was the football team I used to
00:09:49play for.
00:09:50And I was like, oh man, the connection to me and you is just immediate. And yeah, so little things.
00:09:56I think I mean more about, we'll say when I saw you singing some of the Cranberry songs.
00:10:04And what looks like a euphoric moment from the punter's point of view will say, when the crowd
00:10:12starts singing back zombie or, or whatever, and you're on the stage and you're the kind of
00:10:18ringmaster and all that energy is, is because you've said those words. I'm curious, that physical
00:10:25feeling, like what's happening in your body when that's going on? Not tons, honestly. And I don't
00:10:30mean to sound like I'm dead out there, but I just mean like, for me, it's all zombie.
00:10:36Yeah, no, but I mean, like in my mind, yeah, all the sort of emotion in the world, but in
00:10:43my body,
00:10:43to be honest, like it's a more boring conversation, but in my body, I'm constantly focused on is my
00:10:49breath here? Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Um, I'm getting, I understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My breath,
00:10:55my breath is always here. I'm trying to keep all tension away from here. And even like not
00:11:00sort of even move my mouth too much. I, I, I sing in such a way that it's very demanding
00:11:06and it comes from playing in the street. Cause I, when I played in the street, I was trying
00:11:09to be as loud as I could. Okay. And I think I've carried that insecurity and energy into my career
00:11:14now. And so I sing in such a way that I'm pushing the whole time. And I guess with the
00:11:18Cranberries in
00:11:18particular, the songs are still in Dolores's register. Yeah. So I'm trying to sort of reach those notes.
00:11:24And, uh, so yeah, like not a fun or powerful thing, but I'm constantly checking my body because
00:11:30I've had trouble sometimes, but. Of, of, of this kind of constricting a little bit or something?
00:11:35Yeah. And the vocal chords were fine. I had to cancel like six weeks of gigs
00:11:39because I thought I was really, really doing proper damage. And, um, but what happened was I was
00:11:45watching all these singers like Springsteen and Glenn Hansen and all this stuff push and give so much
00:11:50emotion in it. And I wanted to be like that, but I was doing it with zero technique. And so
00:11:54I got to
00:11:55a point where I was sort of literally strangling myself when I was singing, do you know? So I
00:11:59couldn't, uh, my, my, I was at this tone the whole time. I couldn't get above it. And so I
00:12:04thought I was
00:12:05briefly, I kind of had a freaker and thought I was done though. And then there was a fellow in
00:12:08France
00:12:09told me I had to get surgery and all this sort of stuff. But I, uh, you just, if you
00:12:12have the right
00:12:12technique and your breath is down here, I could alleviate all that. Yeah. I mean, I would have had
00:12:17that with the standup as well of there's something very comfortable about shouting. Right. Yeah.
00:12:23Yeah. You know what I mean? There's just something and you can, you can play with tempo and pause and
00:12:28you know, all that, but there's just something very, um, maybe vulnerable about speaking in your
00:12:35normal register. Oh, I can't imagine. Yeah. And do, do you trust most of the people that you meet
00:12:41in the music business? Uh, not necessarily, but I don't, you know, are there sharks out there?
00:12:47I'm sure there are. I don't know if I've encountered any. I don't think so. Um, I've no doubt there
00:12:52are.
00:12:52Do you have a hard edge? As a person or as in my career? Uh, yeah, I would say so.
00:12:59Yeah. I think
00:13:00you have to, I do. Um, and whether it's on show or not, I feel like it's quite a private
00:13:05thing,
00:13:05but like, yeah, I think so. I would say so. I don't know how it kind of shows its face,
00:13:10but I would like to think so. But just to be, to know what you want to try. I'm not
00:13:16sure people
00:13:16can ever know what they are, who they are, but know what you want to try and know, have a
00:13:22sense
00:13:22of what suits you. Always be open for surprises, but have a sense of, no, I'm not doing it like
00:13:26that.
00:13:26Uh, yeah, I would say the answer to that question now is yes, but I would say I'm awful for
00:13:35putting too much trust in, like if someone is loud, I'll be like, okay, cool. You know what,
00:13:41like, you know what we should be doing. I mean, not that, not in that stupid way,
00:13:45but if someone is like, if someone is like, I love the drums, I'll be like, all right, cool.
00:13:49Not in a careless way. Do you know what I mean? I feel like, I feel like I'm kind of
00:13:54sort of
00:13:55easily led a little bit. And I think it's taken me this long where I'll be in a room and
00:14:00I'll be like,
00:14:00no, I actually don't like that. So let's do it like this and da da da. Yeah. And also for
00:14:04me,
00:14:04you know, like I could look back and be like, shite, if I was more aggro five years ago,
00:14:09maybe I'd be, it's a waste of time. You can, like, I'm trying my best. You know what I mean?
00:14:13Yeah. In terms of your personal life, has it been weird becoming famous?
00:14:23No, I swear to God. Like I, I live in the middle of nowhere. I don't come into town much.
00:14:27And if I
00:14:29leave the country and if I leave the country, I can kind of go wherever I like, you know, like,
00:14:34like if I'm walking through London, I might bump into two people who kind of say, I like your music.
00:14:38It's never weird. Touch wood. That's what I'm saying about like talking about having huge songs
00:14:42and a huge career. It's like, maybe it's a, maybe it's a sweet spot where I'm at, you know?
00:14:48Um, where in the middle of nowhere do you live? Like what county?
00:14:51It is Dublin. Barely. It's sort of like Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow.
00:14:55And what do you like about it? Like, I don't know. I've been in,
00:14:58like my favourite sort of book ever came across when I was a kid was The Hobbit.
00:15:00And I was just like, oh man, I wanted to live in that. Yeah.
00:15:02And then to some degree, I kind of felt like I did a bit, you know, and the forest was
00:15:05there.
00:15:07And like, the forest was there. Did you design the house you're living in?
00:15:12No. Did you decorate it? It's about to be renovated.
00:15:17What kind of stuff are you doing to the house?
00:15:19It's not these doors. No, it's not. No, um, I wish.
00:15:25No, but you know, as Hobbit easy you can get it.
00:15:27So within the planning permission, sort of. Yeah.
00:15:31So, uh, describe it to me. Describe, tell me what you're doing to the house.
00:15:34What it will look like. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:35We're essentially keeping one wall, knocking it. It's, I would like to think it's modest
00:15:39and it's stone and I just want it to be cozy. That's all I care about, yeah.
00:15:43Okay, cozy. So have you, so you've put, you've put aside an amount of money for the thing.
00:15:49What do you, what do you want in the house?
00:15:51Oh, I would like, if I was sort of like ticking dream things off,
00:15:57I definitely need a room with sort of the biggest TV on earth and a PlayStation.
00:16:03Yeah. That is a thing. Definitely. Definitely. It's the only thing that like, yeah, I get lost within games.
00:16:11Yeah. I've never, I've never played them now. So what are you, like, are you killing people or are you?
00:16:15You are, but it's not difficult at all.
00:16:19I can't. When people talk about Call of Duty and all these games, I get so stressed.
00:16:23All right. If you turn a corner and there's a fella just like right there, that I can't. So it's,
00:16:28I would play Assassin's Creed an awful lot and one of them is based in Florence. So you're essentially
00:16:32just wandering through Florence. It's lovely. It's lovely. Just, no, not like that. Not like that.
00:16:38It's from like, it's from around Medici times. So yeah.
00:16:41Okay. So you're stabbing people.
00:16:43It's more stabbing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:16:50But it's amazing because there's all these historical things. Like one of the, one of the Medici's was killed
00:16:54coming out of mass. And so the history is rewritten. So that, that's you doing it.
00:16:59And you kind of wander up to him and there's a little knife in here and just, yeah, yeah.
00:17:05Yeah. And then you escape.
00:17:07Yeah. So, so yeah.
00:17:09So you're not carrying any aggression from the music business.
00:17:12No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy's facilitating all the art in Florence.
00:17:17Just spending all day stabbing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:17:21So what else is in the house? In the dream house?
00:17:25A piano, I guess. Have to.
00:17:29Like, do you drink wine?
00:17:32No, I drink whiskey. Oh, good man. Good man.
00:17:35You know, I actually couldn't care about wine at all.
00:17:38Yeah. It doesn't do it for me at all.
00:17:40It's one of those things you could show me the nicest wine in the world
00:17:42versus the shitty one. And I would not know.
00:17:45Yeah. Whiskey, I do like.
00:17:46Uh, whiskey would be there. A lovely cooking situation.
00:17:48I do like to cook. I think I'm, that's a classic sort of musician thing,
00:17:51isn't it? Being like, I can focus and get one thing done.
00:17:55In terms of cooking?
00:17:56Yeah, like it calms you down a bit.
00:17:57Because you actually achieve something that you can look at it.
00:17:59Especially if you spend all the morning stabbing.
00:18:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:02But music is this thing you're just gonna like, I think it was okay.
00:18:04At least if you cook something, you're like, okay, brilliant.
00:18:06Yeah.
00:18:09What's the, what's the rest of the year look like for you in terms of travel and all that?
00:18:13Yeah, a good few shows.
00:18:16Yeah, tours, we'll do Europe and UK.
00:18:20Do the shows in the Aviva in the summer.
00:18:23Do America in the autumn and then Australia.
00:18:26And then a ton of stuff in between, you know, like.
00:18:28Oh yeah, because I was thinking there's a lot of space in between.
00:18:32All those things and a ton of stuff in between.
00:18:35Well, a ton of stuff in between.
00:18:36I mean like chatting to you, doing like stuff like this.
00:18:38You know, there's always stuff popping up, so.
00:18:40Yeah.
00:18:40And then I have to make music in the meantime, so.
00:18:43Are you going to sing for us later?
00:18:45Yes, exactly.
00:18:45Can you tell us about the song and.
00:18:47Yeah, how you came up with this and.
00:18:50Yes, it's a song called Refuge.
00:18:52Refuge felt like a nice word for it.
00:18:53And I think like it was quite an easy one to write and it was in Nashville.
00:19:01And to be honest, it was one of my first experiences of everybody being in the room,
00:19:05recording it as opposed to like you do the guitar.
00:19:07Then we'll come back and assess it and do drums.
00:19:09It felt it felt really kind of cohesive and quite live and stuff like that.
00:19:14So it came together quite easily.
00:19:15And yeah, doing it with the orchestra.
00:19:18So yeah.
00:19:18Thanks for coming on the show.
00:19:20Not at all. Thank you.
00:19:20And a pleasure to meet you.
00:19:22Appreciate it.
00:19:22And have a yappity.
00:19:23It's a good chat.
00:19:24Fair play.
00:19:24Nice one. Thank you.
00:19:25Thanks, Tommy.
00:19:40Welcome back to the second half, everybody.
00:19:43Who's next, Freddie?
00:19:44Tommy, our next guests are Aoife and Lisa O'Rourke.
00:19:53Hi, Tommy, how are you?
00:19:56Hi, Tommy, how are you?
00:19:57I'm Lisa.
00:19:58Lisa and Aoife, how are you?
00:20:00Great.
00:20:01How are you?
00:20:02You look like athletes.
00:20:04A good guess.
00:20:05Are you?
00:20:05We are.
00:20:07Yeah, we do a bit of animus.
00:20:09Try to stay a bit active.
00:20:11What's your story?
00:20:13What can we talk about?
00:20:14So I suppose I'm Aoife and that's Lisa and we're two sisters from Roscommon and we both do boxing so
00:20:22that's our main sport.
00:20:25Main sport, yeah.
00:20:25Main sport, yeah.
00:20:26Yeah, we like to stay active but probably best known for boxing but we do dip our toe into a
00:20:33bit of high rocks too.
00:20:34Gaelic football or yes.
00:20:38How are you well known?
00:20:40I don't know, Roscommon's not too big I suppose but I don't know.
00:20:45Maybe from the medals in the Worlds.
00:20:47Yeah, we're two.
00:20:49Won silver medals in Serbia last year at the World Championships and we're one fight after each other.
00:20:56You're in ahead of me and then I was just when they're announcing the result for Lisa
00:21:02I was getting ready to walk into the ring afterwards.
00:21:05Are you the same weight division?
00:21:06No, Jesus, no.
00:21:07Thank God because Mam wouldn't allow that.
00:21:10We'd have to fight each other.
00:21:11It'd be only like one spot.
00:21:13Ireland can only bring like one person.
00:21:16competition at each weight category so we're avoiding each other.
00:21:22Was there boxing in the family as you were growing up?
00:21:25Like was Mam or Dad interested in it?
00:21:27No, definitely not.
00:21:28There's five girls.
00:21:29Yeah, five girls in the house.
00:21:31Probably got a bit of fighting skills growing up and battling her way with four sisters.
00:21:36It mostly kind of started off Aoife went in, her friends are doing it and went in for the
00:21:42fitness for Gaelic football and then she stuck at it for probably a year or that.
00:21:48And I was like, you're daft.
00:21:50Like what are you at?
00:21:51No, this isn't for girls.
00:21:52And Mam and them were all agreeing and she kept going and then she kept egging me on.
00:21:58And then eventually I went in and just fell in love with it.
00:22:03And she was right all along.
00:22:05The fitness thing is severe.
00:22:07Like of all the sports I've come across in terms of getting fit,
00:22:11boxing will do it for you probably quicker than a lot of other sports.
00:22:15It's very high intensity, yeah.
00:22:17And then is the impact side of it.
00:22:20Yeah.
00:22:20So what was that like the first time to get hit?
00:22:25Strange.
00:22:26I think we were used to that though from growing up.
00:22:29Like we used to tear pieces out of each other.
00:22:32Who took each other's clothes and everything.
00:22:34Like for a house of five women, like you just don't know what you're dealing with.
00:22:39You learn your survival skills.
00:22:40Yeah, but imagine a bit of wrestling or hair pulling.
00:22:43I'm not imagining a punch to the nose and stuff.
00:22:45Literally.
00:22:48I do remember when I first ever was in the ring,
00:22:52that like any time a punch was coming at me, I would just laugh.
00:22:55I don't know, is that just the way I was dealing with the nerves or what?
00:22:59But like, I just remember finding it all hilarious.
00:23:02Being like, why am I in a ring?
00:23:04Like literally a square, like trying to bait someone
00:23:07and somebody else is coming at me.
00:23:09It just doesn't make sense.
00:23:10And to this day, it actually doesn't make sense to me.
00:23:12But yeah, I just keep going back for more.
00:23:14I don't know, it doesn't make sense to any of us.
00:23:17What part of Roscommon are you?
00:23:18Uh, Castlery.
00:23:19It's like 20 minutes from the...
00:23:21Where the prison is.
00:23:22Yeah, that's how everyone says that.
00:23:24We don't say it, we try not to be the first one to say it.
00:23:28But yeah, where the prison is.
00:23:29And Ming, is he Castlery?
00:23:30Yeah, good old Ming.
00:23:31We're all from that side of the country.
00:23:33Yeah, yeah.
00:23:33I know, we're out in a lovely little now.
00:23:35Five minutes outside the town, Tarman.
00:23:39So Tarman, yeah, that's where we come from.
00:23:41We're farming background, loads of sheep and cattle.
00:23:44So if you have a few hours free, we're in the hype of lambing right now.
00:23:49So there's plenty of work.
00:23:50Yeah, the more hands, the better.
00:23:51You're more than...
00:23:52I pay for the period to beat me up now before I do go lambing.
00:23:55You'll have to come down.
00:23:57And what is lambing?
00:24:00The young lambs outside.
00:24:02The sheep.
00:24:02The bah.
00:24:03Yeah, I know what lambs are.
00:24:06But it's lambing just kind of...
00:24:07Newborns, newborns.
00:24:08Pulling them out of sheep.
00:24:09Yeah, yeah.
00:24:09So that's happening now and they'll be working around the clock.
00:24:13Totally.
00:24:14So they're getting up every two, three hours during the night, checking on them.
00:24:18And it's...
00:24:19You don't need an alarm clock around our place anyways.
00:24:22Yeah, they're singing.
00:24:23There's a choir.
00:24:24They're the local choir.
00:24:26We have a radio on in the shed for them.
00:24:27And yeah, we actually invested in the radio this year because they do give you a headache
00:24:34and you just, if you have something else going, RT1,
00:24:38it's better than hearing ba-ba black sheep every two seconds.
00:24:43You're talking about the yo's in pain giving birth.
00:24:45You're talking about the lambs after they're born.
00:24:47They're not.
00:24:47No, the yo's are the ones singing.
00:24:49Yeah.
00:24:50Never stop.
00:24:51They never.
00:24:51Because they're looking for their nuts.
00:24:52They're in labour.
00:24:53They're not singing.
00:24:54No, they're not at all.
00:24:55They're all in the shed getting ready.
00:24:56And whenever their moment is, they're ready.
00:25:00But they're all just looking for feed.
00:25:02Like, they've silage in front of them.
00:25:05So they're hearing that.
00:25:08But they're fine.
00:25:09It's like getting sweets.
00:25:10When we're a young child and you see the packet of sweets, you're like,
00:25:14Mammy, can I have one?
00:25:15Can I have one?
00:25:15So they're like, can I have more?
00:25:17Can I have more?
00:25:18But, yeah.
00:25:19And the radio just seems to have mellowed them a bit.
00:25:21It's a great crack.
00:25:21We did.
00:25:22We've, I suppose we're the two out of the house,
00:25:25out of the five girls that have been most out on the farm,
00:25:29and just getting our hands stuck in.
00:25:30And that's probably, yeah.
00:25:32Oh, yeah.
00:25:32We, like, there was probably dirt underneath these fingernails yesterday.
00:25:37And we had to scrub up that.
00:25:39Scrub with a nail brush.
00:25:40But, no, we've always had probably gotten a challenge slide out of us when we were,
00:25:46it was a matter of scraping the shed.
00:25:49Who could scrape the shed the fastest?
00:25:51She'd be on the left.
00:25:52I'd be on the right.
00:25:53Or doing it faster than daddy.
00:25:55Or who could carry the more cans of meat.
00:25:58Like, it was just, I think, the physical strength as well,
00:26:01like, from doing that growing up has contributed to us in sport as well, so.
00:26:08Well, Scotland has a reputation for being a kind of a conservative county,
00:26:10doesn't it?
00:26:11It kind of votes no in every referendum.
00:26:13There's no heed, to be honest.
00:26:16I think it was when they did the gay marriage,
00:26:20the something else and the something else.
00:26:23I shouldn't.
00:26:24They like to be different.
00:26:25The funny place in the country, they both were,
00:26:26no, everything was just common.
00:26:31Is there the opportunity to earn a living from boxing?
00:26:35At the moment, we're both funded athletes,
00:26:38with Sport Ireland.
00:26:40And that's kind of like on a yearly basis,
00:26:43literally depends how you've got on the previous year.
00:26:46But we both genuinely love being athletes.
00:26:49So as long as we can continue this,
00:26:52we'll be happy out.
00:26:53And what happened at the,
00:26:55was it the recent World Championships that you were at?
00:26:58We were both at the World Championships in
00:27:01Serbia last May or April, was it?
00:27:04Yeah.
00:27:06Last March, I think.
00:27:09And we both got silver medals there.
00:27:11Yeah, so we were the first ever sisters to be in World Finals
00:27:14and on the same day in boxing.
00:27:18And yeah, we both took home silver.
00:27:22And to be honest, it was, it was a real special moment.
00:27:25Like, I think that day we were just,
00:27:29obviously we cared about the gold medal, we wanted the gold medal,
00:27:32but we just couldn't get over.
00:27:34The two of us were waking up to go to the weigh-in to,
00:27:37to compete in a World Championship final together.
00:27:40Like, that was our goal, getting to the final.
00:27:42And it was nearly the gold medal being there together.
00:27:46And we were like, at that stage, if we brought home silver a gold,
00:27:49we were, or both had outdone ourselves and really happy.
00:27:54So, yeah, that was a real special moment.
00:27:58And then going on to September,
00:28:01September, Aoife became world champion.
00:28:06Yeah, this year.
00:28:07In Liverpool, we had the World Championships.
00:28:11And yeah, went on, had a good competition there, I suppose.
00:28:14Lisa also won the World Championships in 2022.
00:28:17So, yeah, I was probably chasing what she had already won.
00:28:23What have you found strange about the world of international boxing?
00:28:28That she'd come to some kips of spots.
00:28:32Oh, my God, like, we've travelled the world,
00:28:35but people think, like, we're off living our best lives.
00:28:39And I'm like, jeez, have you only seen, lads,
00:28:41what's the toilets like, or the room, or whatever, the food?
00:28:45So, what's the worst place you've been to, then?
00:28:48Either that Turkey camp or Serbia.
00:28:51Serbia was bad as well.
00:28:52There was a...
00:28:54I don't know, should I be saying this?
00:28:56The roof was leaking in the hotel,
00:28:57there was buckets, we were training around.
00:29:00Yeah, like, it was...
00:29:01Then we'd go to the venue, we'd walk over a railway track.
00:29:05No word of a lie.
00:29:06Look left, look right, there's no train.
00:29:08Go, lads.
00:29:09Run, run, put the head down.
00:29:11You had the warm-up done before the fight, you put the head down.
00:29:14Like, walking to a World Championship final,
00:29:16and you'd cross the train.
00:29:19Honestly, you couldn't write it.
00:29:21But these are all memories.
00:29:23They're all memories, yeah.
00:29:24So, yeah.
00:29:24Like, we've had some fantastic memories, and you just...
00:29:28And we wouldn't have been on a plane only for boxing,
00:29:30because seven of us at home, we weren't going too far.
00:29:34Yeah.
00:29:35There was no family holidays, and when you have a farm as well,
00:29:37there's a...
00:29:38Yeah, it's not too often we get us all abroad, so...
00:29:41Erm, the toughest country to fight against?
00:29:47Mine was probably my world final, erm, against...
00:29:53What was it called?
00:29:55Oh, jeez.
00:29:57It's one of them ones...
00:30:01I don't know.
00:30:02She didn't box in the final at all?
00:30:06I don't know.
00:30:07You boxed.
00:30:08Get the box.
00:30:12I can picture her, I just can't see it.
00:30:16Oh, stop it.
00:30:18Honestly, European countries are very tough, though.
00:30:20They're up there, like...
00:30:21They all are international.
00:30:24Yeah, look it, you wouldn't be representing your country
00:30:26if you're not the best.
00:30:27You've been hitting the head a good bit, like...
00:30:30I've watched them a good question.
00:30:31She's got ghosts all the time.
00:30:34Oh, jeez, lads.
00:30:38Like, was she Chinese, or Mongolian, or Russian, or...
00:30:41One of them, Azerbaijan, or...
00:30:42No.
00:30:44Begins with Z, did it?
00:30:47Zaire?
00:30:47No.
00:30:48Zambia?
00:30:49Oh, jeez.
00:30:50This is going to annoy me.
00:30:51You're going to annoy me now?
00:30:52No.
00:30:54Go on, we'll be here for the night.
00:30:59I'll come back to you.
00:31:00It will, it will.
00:31:01Later, yeah, yeah.
00:31:01I'll come out with this random word now in about five minutes.
00:31:04It's a year!
00:31:06Wow.
00:31:08Do you have long in the sport, do you think?
00:31:13What age do I look?
00:31:15You're both in your early 30s, are you?
00:31:16Oh, jeezus christ!
00:31:18Come on, how's she here?
00:31:21We'll give you another guess now.
00:31:26You're both very young, like, like, you're, you're, you might still be a teenager, and you're 21, maybe?
00:31:35Oh, yeah, we'll take that.
00:31:37You're, you're getting told you're the older one tonight, every day.
00:31:41I'm 23.
00:31:42Yeah.
00:31:43And she's 28.
00:31:45I'm hanging up the gloves every year.
00:31:46Every competition you see me at, I'm telling you, that's it.
00:31:49Not coming back, but yeah, here I am.
00:31:52So what's the opportunity to go professional then, or does that exist?
00:31:58It does, but if you go professional, you can't be an amateur and go to the Olympics.
00:32:04Um, so if the Olympics is in your radar, then going professional isn't really an option, unless you're, you're kind
00:32:16of going off that path.
00:32:17So the Olympics are...
00:32:19Every four years.
00:32:20But is it this year or next year?
00:32:22No, it's 20, 28.
00:32:23Aoife went to...
00:32:25It's in two years time.
00:32:26Yeah.
00:32:26She went to Tokyo and Paris, and competed in Tokyo and Paris, yeah.
00:32:32And what happened there?
00:32:35I said, I wouldn't bother going any further in the competition.
00:32:39No, I, in Tokyo, I boxed against China, and I lost that in the last 16.
00:32:45Um, so then you're, in boxing, once you lose, you're out the competition.
00:32:49There's no, like, back door, you know, to get in.
00:32:52And, and then in Paris, I met Poland in last 16, was it?
00:32:57I think so, yeah.
00:32:57Probably was, and lost that, so yeah.
00:33:01Didn't, didn't go the way I had planned, but...
00:33:03So would you be there, thereabouts, for the medals in, it's in LA, isn't it, the next Olympics?
00:33:08Uh, yeah.
00:33:08I'm not trying to look too far ahead.
00:33:10I think all about enjoying the journey, and literally not getting so far ahead of yourself
00:33:17that you're only thinking about an Olympic gold medal or whatever it is.
00:33:20Um, one competition at a time, one training block at a time, and look, if I get to LA, amazing.
00:33:27And if this girl is by my side, two sisters going to the next Olympics, it would be incredible.
00:33:33But I just want to get there with a smile on my face.
00:33:36And if success comes with that, great.
00:33:39But if not, you know, there's more to life too than sport.
00:33:43What other things do you do?
00:33:46More sport.
00:33:47More sport, yeah.
00:33:48Um, yeah, we do higher ox.
00:33:50Have you heard of that?
00:33:51Yeah.
00:33:51Yeah.
00:33:52Yeah, we're pretty much like that too.
00:33:54We've won the Worlds at that too.
00:33:58We're a team for that now.
00:34:00We're pros.
00:34:01Or, I mean, we're pro-doubles.
00:34:03Well, I wouldn't say we're pros.
00:34:07We went to the World Championships in Chicago in June, last year.
00:34:12And, look, we were going there, and, like, we told, we brought our mom and I came in.
00:34:17Like, we never really went abroad with them before.
00:34:19And we're like, like, look at this, it's only a bit of fun.
00:34:21Like, no expectations, no nothing.
00:34:24And we just ended up winning it.
00:34:26And we, I suppose it's probably the competitiveness that came out in us.
00:34:30We got, it was all fun and games in the warm-up.
00:34:32And then, get to the start line with this one, and it's like, three, two, one, head down.
00:34:36It's so hard, the switch is so hard.
00:34:37Yeah, and we just, we just kept running, really, and doing the stations as fast as we could.
00:34:43And next thing we knew, we were over the line, and they gave us the big thing to, you know,
00:34:48the, what do you call them?
00:34:49The bow run.
00:34:52You know, and you announced you were a world champion.
00:34:54Yeah, no, it was, it was class, to be fair.
00:34:57And it was just, it was our first time in the US, and with mom and dad there as well.
00:35:02And that's, but that's extreme fitness.
00:35:05It is, it is, the high rocks thing, that is extreme, that's like the...
00:35:08Boxing is high intensity, but so is the...
00:35:11Nine minutes.
00:35:11It's nine minutes, short and sweet, where this one is, you're talking an hour.
00:35:16And an hour ten on a bad day, like.
00:35:19So, but it's for everyone.
00:35:21And like, the race can take you an hour, or it can take you two or three hours.
00:35:25You know, you just keep going until you have it done, at your own pace.
00:35:28And the quicker you do, the better, but...
00:35:31Are any of the sisters not interested at all in fitness?
00:35:36Not like we are.
00:35:38Yeah, but...
00:35:39We once, the sister between us, Ayla, she does a bit of rugby now.
00:35:43And the two eldest girls are in Australia, and...
00:35:47Look, if they go to the gym, but they wouldn't be...
00:35:50Not an object, I suppose.
00:35:53Maybe a bit of palatia, something a bit more...
00:35:54Yeah, yeah.
00:35:55Yeah, yeah.
00:35:56Slowed down, yeah.
00:35:57But they're all a bit more ladylike, and...
00:36:00Yeah.
00:36:00Yeah.
00:36:00And is the great unsaid thing between you, or are you both very clear and realistic,
00:36:07of what would like to fight one another?
00:36:09Oh, that won't happen?
00:36:10No, it definitely won't happen.
00:36:13You're looking there, is it?
00:36:14No, no.
00:36:15I was going to say, I'm sure we might tell a few people we're going to,
00:36:19and we'll get a great crowd.
00:36:21I know, but...
00:36:22Even Lisa, they got each other in Casserie.
00:36:25Yeah, no.
00:36:26Look, we love sport, and we want to be trying to keep our number one spots in that.
00:36:32But, like, if there ever was a time where one of us would choose,
00:36:37we wouldn't take it to that extent.
00:36:39Mum definitely wouldn't allow it, I don't know what she'd do.
00:36:43Because she'd have to come to the...
00:36:44Well, she wouldn't have to, but...
00:36:45We'd have to box against each other in the All-Irelands,
00:36:47and then only one of us is selected, so...
00:36:51We do sparring and that for practice, and...
00:36:54That's enough, I wouldn't like anything.
00:36:57I know, we do make it fun and enjoyable too, like...
00:37:00She might stick out her tongue the odd time at me, and...
00:37:03You know, vice versa.
00:37:05Just to throw her off from a big punch.
00:37:07I know, but...
00:37:08There's power behind her.
00:37:09We enjoy it, and that's the main thing, I suppose.
00:37:12And just to wrap up, it's something that you would encourage other girls to get into?
00:37:19Definitely.
00:37:20Yeah, there's great discipline and, uh...
00:37:22Learn.
00:37:23Learn, yeah.
00:37:24And the opportunities that we've got out of it, like, and getting to see the world,
00:37:29and travel the world, and represent your country, like, representing Ireland is...
00:37:32You know, so many people dream of that.
00:37:35And just never take it for granted that, like, when we get in, we are so proud to be representing
00:37:41our clubs,
00:37:42our county, and Ireland, like, on the world stage.
00:37:45It's incredible, and just so grateful for it.
00:37:49Wow.
00:37:50Thank you so much, uh, for coming on to the show.
00:37:53And talking to me, lads.
00:37:55Thanks very much for the talk.
00:37:56Wow.
00:38:12Welcome to the third half, everybody.
00:38:14Freddie, who's next?
00:38:16Tommy.
00:38:17Our next guest is Mr. Tim Key.
00:38:27All right.
00:38:28Hello.
00:38:29You have a surprisingly firm handshake.
00:38:33Why is that surprising?
00:38:34I don't know.
00:38:35I just...
00:38:36You give the vibe of a man who would be quite...
00:38:39loose.
00:38:41Yours was loose.
00:38:42Are you judging me?
00:38:45How are you?
00:38:47I'm good.
00:38:48How are you?
00:38:48Were you ill recently?
00:38:52Was I ill?
00:38:53Yeah.
00:38:53Did you have a bad something or other?
00:39:00Uh, I was pretty ill at one point.
00:39:02Yeah.
00:39:03Yeah.
00:39:04What was it?
00:39:07Well, I mean, I...
00:39:08I mean...
00:39:09Well, I got diagnosed with, um, a malignant melanoma.
00:39:14Is that what you were thinking of?
00:39:18I wasn't thinking of anything specifically, but what is that?
00:39:23Well, um, it's like a skin cancer.
00:39:28So, um, well, what originally happened was a, um, I was doing a gig.
00:39:34Yeah.
00:39:35And, uh, in the gig, I, um, I started the show wearing my suit, but then in my show, I
00:39:44changed
00:39:44my clothes and I end up in little denim shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.
00:39:50And I ended up stood on the stairway in the auditorium and then next to me was a GP.
00:39:57And then the next day, the GP sent an email to my agent saying,
00:40:03love the show, but he should go and see his GP as soon as possible.
00:40:09So I went to the GP and then she, um, referred me straight away to hospital.
00:40:16And then the consultant said he wanted to operate that day to remove it.
00:40:24Is that what you're thinking of?
00:40:26Like I said, I didn't have any... Jesus.
00:40:31Yeah.
00:40:34Is it... Are you okay now?
00:40:38Yeah.
00:40:43I thought that was a decent opener.
00:40:49And that's the greatest opening we've had over the 10 years.
00:40:52That's just like...
00:40:54So then when I, when I was kind of recovered,
00:40:57I then dug out the email from the, from the doctor who'd emailed my agent, uh, to thank her.
00:41:05So, and the only detail I got wrong is she hadn't said she'd enjoyed the show.
00:41:11That was probably harder to take.
00:41:14What did I do wrong? It's not easy, is it, our job?
00:41:17No.
00:41:18Wow.
00:41:19Yeah.
00:41:21Was that the, you, the movie that came out in the past couple of months,
00:41:29Yeah.
00:41:29Was that in and around the same time or was this well before it or?
00:41:34So, um, well, that one was, um, no, that happened around about 2000 and, um, 18, 17,
00:41:44something like that.
00:41:45And then, yeah, we made the film, um, in 2020.
00:41:49Wow, okay. Wow. Wow.
00:41:51Yeah.
00:41:53But I'm, I mean, I'm okay.
00:41:55Thank God, like.
00:41:56Yeah.
00:41:57Yeah.
00:41:57Uh, what is it? What, what is a, like, what did the doctor see, do you think?
00:42:01Well, she saw what I'd always thought was like a birthmark,
00:42:05but then what happened was I think it started to change and then luckily the, um, the GP had my
00:42:11back. But yeah, so it was, it was like a raised birthmark and then that had to be removed.
00:42:18And then they also removed some lymph nodes and then, um, put me on a course of treatment.
00:42:25So I got rid of everything and then scanned me so there was no cancer and then put me on
00:42:30a course
00:42:30of, of treatment for a year.
00:42:34Uh, I'm thinking about your skills as an actor from seeing you in the, um, the thing with Steve Coogan,
00:42:43Alan Partridge chat show thing. Yeah. The host of that. Yeah. And I'm
00:42:52interested in decisions that you make when you're doing stuff like that.
00:42:58Uh, cause it's quite underplayed or something or it's soft or it's not, you're not trying to,
00:43:04you know, claim the space. That's a very sense. That's a very sensitive
00:43:11antenna or something that you have. Uh, do you think about the way you play things?
00:43:18Yeah, I do. I mean, I think with that one, it's, it's a very specific job because I'm working with
00:43:26Steve Coogan and, and as, and him playing Alan Partridge, that's kind of like, it's quite a horrific
00:43:35combination and quite, it's a lot for me to be, to be offered the job was kind of mad. Um,
00:43:41because that,
00:43:41I think it's, I would say it's my, my favourite. Yeah. And then, and it would be bad enough that
00:43:46he'd just asked me to, to work with him. Not bad enough. I mean, it's, it's quite good. It's a
00:43:50good
00:43:51opportunity, but. The two words you've used to describe it so far are horrific and bad. Yeah,
00:43:56so it's, it's moving in the right direction. In a minute, it's going to be okay. It's the same
00:44:04principle as my treatment. So then, um, yeah, so doing it, the technicality of it is quite interesting
00:44:12because the first time we did it, we were in like a tiny studio and it is, it's very, very
00:44:18intense
00:44:19because the director then closes the door and because it was in a radio studio, that's where it's set and
00:44:24we did it in an actual radio studio. So, and like with two fixed cameras. So now I'm just sat
00:44:29there
00:44:29at, uh, much closer than you and I are sat now with Alan Partridge, which is like, I don't know,
00:44:37it's like a sort of direct hit of your absolute hero and you're that far away. And actually a lot
00:44:43of the shots kind of rely on the fact that you're in each other's grills and there's no, there's no
00:44:47space. Some people have been very nice about my performance and it's that nervousness and
00:44:54stuff, but there's a lot of it that I'm just like, you know, handing over from my life onto the
00:45:00screen where I'm genuinely in awe of this person and I'm genuinely scared that I'm going to ruin it.
00:45:07And that's what I'm thinking. And that's what sidekick Simon is thinking. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:45:14tell us about the, uh, the guts and the kind of willpower it took to make a movie that you'd
00:45:24written.
00:45:26Um, yeah. So we made, have you seen it? No. So we made it, we made a short film in
00:45:322007
00:45:35and I don't think that took too much guts or willpower because it's just a short film.
00:45:40So to make the feature, I think we're very lucky. It was an adaptation of that short film.
00:45:45I didn't have much fear at all about, about any of it. I think from the, from the start of
00:45:52what,
00:45:52once we, once we wrote it and I wrote, I wrote it with Tom Basden. Once we wrote it,
00:45:58I was reading the script and I thought I could totally imagine this being a feature film.
00:46:04You never know completely, but I think, I think, um, I mean, I've got lots of self doubt in, in,
00:46:11in lots of it, but I did, I did think, I always thought if I wrote a script,
00:46:16the question was whether I was able to write a script, but I felt if I wrote a script,
00:46:22in this case with Tom, where I really loved it and really believed in it, I, I thought then
00:46:29there'd be no reason why it shouldn't be made and maybe be good.
00:46:34How long did it take to write? About six weeks.
00:46:39But it took an incubation period of 17 years.
00:46:42Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think we, with those characters that we had in the short film,
00:46:49I think we had complete faith that they were like, they're quite interesting and we, and me and Tom,
00:46:55we were in a sketch group years ago and we, so we've learned each other's rhythms over the years.
00:47:01Do you, do you still enjoy stand-up?
00:47:05I, I don't know. I mean, I did it last night and I just loved it. I, I do, I,
00:47:09I do love doing it,
00:47:10but I feel like maybe sometimes it takes out, you put quite a lot of, of yourself into it.
00:47:17Mm-hmm. And, er, how much of the show will be poem based?
00:47:22This one, there's, erm, there's 18 poems. It's usually 18 poems. Yeah. I start, when I, when I do my
00:47:30first, erm, warm up or first, erm, you know, preview on scratch night, I start with about 50. Actually,
00:47:39a full deck of playing cards. I read them off playing cards. Mm-hmm.
00:47:41And I do that and talk in between them and then gradually it just gets whittled down and
00:47:46whittled down until I've got 18 that I've complete faith in. What, and what's your, er,
00:47:53er, so what's your comic character, but what's, what is the thing that you're looking for that makes
00:48:00you laugh in a poem? Erm, is it about vulnerability? Is it about being strange? Is it, I don't know.
00:48:13I mean, sometimes there's, sometimes something unexpected will happen in a poem,
00:48:18but then sometimes, I, I, certainly when I first started writing them, there'd be stuff where,
00:48:24erm, nothing unexpected is happening and it's sort of almost, er, the, the, the joke in itself is that,
00:48:30that I'm reading this thing out. I do remember that was, like, a big part of it when I started,
00:48:36where it would just be about, like, two people, like, coming across each other on a hill and
00:48:41curtsying and you're like, I mean, that's a disgrace that I'm reading that out. And I,
00:48:46I'd, I'd tried stand-up before and it had been, like, I'd found it really hard. Just, like,
00:48:52literally jokes and I'd done it and I just hadn't worked out what my voice was
00:48:57and this stuff really unlocked it. It's, it's character comedy, like.
00:49:02No, I don't think it is. Not now. No, not now. Then it was. Yeah, yeah.
00:49:06Because I also played it drunk. So I, I was like, my, my suit was ill-fitting and that would
00:49:12have been
00:49:12about 2005 or four or five. And then around about 2009, I switched into, like, a smarter suit.
00:49:21My friend came and watched the gig and said, she thinks it would be better if my character's
00:49:26more dignified. And then I stopped, I'd already stopped pretending to be drunk by that point.
00:49:32But now it was more, no, it wasn't character. It's like a persona. I mean, you don't know it at
00:49:38the
00:49:38start or because of coming it from that direction of it being a bit more of a character. It is
00:49:44strange to think where you're trying to get to. But, but I do think you need to try and get
00:49:49to
00:49:49something where there's a lot of yourself in it. And so now I think I can sort of, there are
00:49:55probably
00:49:56bits where I'm kind of having my cake and eating it. But largely, yeah, I think there's, there's,
00:50:00there's quite a lot of me, of me in there, I think.
00:50:03And does it feel like there is a lot to write about? Like, do you, do you, is, is the
00:50:11well always
00:50:13full when you, when you go to write?
00:50:15Oh, no, no. But with this, there, there was a lot. It was just kind of unpicking how to do
00:50:20it.
00:50:21What was strange is I had, um, written a show when I was ill and it was called The Wars,
00:50:30because I was in The Wars. Um, I was kind of merrily going along doing it as a work in
00:50:35progress and
00:50:35doing it a lot in London, just going, hammering away at it. And it was getting better and better.
00:50:40I, I really did like it by the end. But then I just thought, I don't know whether I can
00:50:44do this
00:50:45at this precise moment and then lockdown. Yeah. So it's kind of a lost one. But there's,
00:50:51in, in the new show, there's, there's some of that is still, there's elements of that that still stay.
00:50:57Yeah. So as, as you were saying that, I, I, it seemed to me that,
00:51:05like when you came out, first of all, and I asked you about the illness,
00:51:10you were genuinely, you looked like you were, what? Like uncomfortable. And
00:51:19is, is, do you have a sense of there's, there's stuff that you don't
00:51:25want to happen in public or in conversation or on stage or like, are you guarded or sensitive in that
00:51:34way or something? I mean, you know, what happened was you asked me that. And, um, so, um,
00:51:46so I did all of that stuff and then got the all clear from, from that situation. Yeah. Then there's,
00:51:53um, four years of like MRI scans and CT scans every three months just to check I was okay.
00:52:00Then I got the all clear, hugged it out with my doctor. And then, um, a year later, which is,
00:52:07um,
00:52:10last, uh, December, uh, I found another lump in, in my hip. And I got, I had all the tests
00:52:23and all of
00:52:23that stuff and then got diagnosed again with cancer. Yeah. So, and I haven't told anyone,
00:52:32like I've never talked about it in, you know, in public. Yeah. And so, um, it felt, it, it did
00:52:39feel
00:52:39like a, um, it felt like a big place to start. And so it said, so with that one, I,
00:52:46so I had an
00:52:47operation last, it was a year ago. So last, last, um, February and they removed, they removed that
00:52:57tumor. And then, um, I started a course of immunotherapy in March of last year. And so
00:53:07every three weeks I do this immunotherapy, uh, exactly the same as last time they removed
00:53:13everything and they scan everything. So I don't have cancer now. Yeah. But I'm doing the treatment
00:53:18for that. And I've been very fortunate. And when it happened, it was all completely and utterly
00:53:25entangled with the release of our film. So I got diagnosed, I think, in the January. And then that
00:53:37night, I did my show, which was talking about, uh, at one point in my show, I'm talking about when
00:53:45I
00:53:45got diagnosed with cancer five years ago. And then I did that show for a week, then went to Sundance
00:53:52for the film festival. And then we opened the film. And then I just remember being on stage with,
00:54:00um, Griff and who directed it and Carey Mulligan, who's in it and Tom Basden. I mean,
00:54:07there's a sort of numbness about it because there's just, it sort of feels impossible
00:54:11that these two things are happening at the same time where I don't know how emotional I would have
00:54:16been in Sundance. It's at altitude, you know, it's really, it's in the mountains and there was a lot
00:54:23going on. And I was so overwhelmed that we made our film and that it was going well. So it
00:54:27probably
00:54:28would have done, done it on its own. And yeah, there was like one interview where I just
00:54:36slightly lost it. I'm not surprised because it sounds like being a double agent
00:54:40or something. Well, it is slightly. I mean, it's weird when you ask the question at the start
00:54:47where I didn't, I didn't quite know what to do with the question because you can say,
00:54:52no, I'm fine. I mean, that's another way of doing it. I could say, yeah, no, I'm fine. How are
00:54:56you?
00:54:56But there was, I thought maybe you might have read something or something.
00:55:00I can't remember. I have no idea how it got into my head.
00:55:02It's the handshake. Yeah. How weak was it? It was very strong.
00:55:07That's what alarmed me. What's he pretending?
00:55:12This guy's covering an illness up. It, the, the, the treatment and the illness story
00:55:22alongside the kind of the, the jet taking off in the film world sounds like a movie.
00:55:30Does it? Yeah, I think so. I kind of felt like when I was in hospital,
00:55:34I thought it felt like a, I write books as well, like little books of kind of poetry and dialogue.
00:55:40And I, I was thinking when I was inside there that there's definitely a book.
00:55:44I just couldn't, it was so interesting, like experiencing both those things.
00:55:50They were on consecutive weekends, the, um, Sundance and then the operation.
00:55:56And so it felt, it's quite, I mean, you don't really have to be someone working in our job
00:56:02to notice the similarities. They're like quite stark where you're like getting a chauffeur driven car
00:56:09in one chapter. And over here, I'm on a line bike. And then over here, you're like being given this
00:56:16amazing food and drinks. And here, there's this sort of grey plate of mints. And then you've got
00:56:23these amazing PR girls who are like taking places and stuff like that, and the nurses. And then you've
00:56:28got the premiere and you've got the operation. You know, it is completely wild. You've got this,
00:56:34you know, five star hotel they're putting you up in. You've got this, you know, hospital ward.
00:56:39Where there's one guy who's like quite rude.
00:56:45But maybe, I mean, now even talking to you about it, it's, it's obviously because it's my life
00:56:50and you don't know anything about it. You know, if with friends, you sort of chip away at things
00:56:57and you talk about small elements of it, but to give the whole, like, I've never really talked
00:57:03about the whole year. So maybe, maybe it is more, maybe there's a chance it could be.
00:57:08Yeah. What kind of stuff makes you laugh?
00:57:15I know it's bad, but like if, I think probably the thing I watch most is The Office.
00:57:20Mm-hmm. And just keep going back to it again and again and again. I must have watched those,
00:57:26like there's only 12, 14 episodes. I just kind of, there's something comforting about it,
00:57:33but I'm not like probably, to be fair, sitting, roaring at a sitcom.
00:57:39No, no, no. It's been quite the chat. There was a lot going on.
00:57:45Hasn't it? Well, I think you should open with ill again. Get to your places.
00:57:54I'd only become predictable. I don't think you were. You're surprising.
00:58:01Thanks for coming on and thanks very much for talking to me.
00:58:08Real pleasure.
00:58:16And now, ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome back Dermot Kennedy,
00:58:19performing with the RTE Concert Orchestra. And he's singing the song Refuge,
00:58:23which is taken from his upcoming album, The Weight of the Woods. And that's released on Friday.
00:58:47We can't know the end until it's over.
00:58:55Show your scars and let me pull closer.
00:59:04Watching your silhouette dance off the lake. I promise I won't let you break.
00:59:12I know the dark shows up more than we'd like. Carve it in stone so the story survive.
00:59:19Try to stand tall. Try to get you to smile. Fight off what's sensible. Say I'm invincible. It's all a
00:59:30lie.
00:59:32Cause, darling, I'm shaking tonight. Chasing a dream, but I'm trying.
00:59:42If we never make it, at least we can say we died trying.
00:59:50And at least the memories of you and me don't have to be perfect.
00:59:59Your sandy feet, the way you breathe, the subtle things that make it all worth it.
01:00:07I'm watching your silhouette dance off the lake. I promise I won't let you break. I know the dark shows
01:00:17up more than we'd like.
01:00:19Carve it in stone so the story survive. Try to stand tall. Try to get you to smile.
01:00:27Try to fight off what's sensible. Say I'm invincible. It's all a lie.
01:00:34Cause, darling, I'm shaking tonight. Chasing a dream, but I'm tired.
01:00:45If we never make it, at least we can say we died trying.
01:00:54Die trying. Die trying.
01:01:02If we never make it, at least we can say we died trying.
01:01:15Trust these words, my heart is true. Love, let me be your refuge.
01:01:23Trust these words, my heart is true. Love, let me be your refuge.
01:01:31Trust these words, my heart is true. Love, let me be your refuge.
01:01:39Trust these words, my heart is true. Love, let me be your refuge.
01:01:49Cause darling I'm shaking tonight
01:01:54Chasing a dream but I'm tired
01:02:00If we never make it at least we can say we died trying
01:02:47We'll be right back
01:02:47We'll be right back
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