So who is Mrs Brown’s new boy?
He’s unknown as an actor, but Damien McKiernan has been an amateur snooker star, worked for Ronnie O’Sullivan’s dad in a sex shop – and saved Ken Doherty’s life
IT WAS the big reveal on Christmas Day’s biggest television show — just who would be the new Rory in Mrs Brown’s Boys? In the end, and in keeping with creator and star Brendan O’Carroll’s penchant for using friends and family, it turned out to be a little known actor called Damien McKiernan.
Indeed, the Dublin man’s drama CV is so slim that many friends had no idea he is now an actor and were shocked to see him unveiled as Mrs Brown’s gay son, who was played by Rory Cowen for 26 years.
An integral and popular member of the cast, Cowen’s shock decision to quit the show late last year left fans obsessing about how his absence would be handled. It’s been reported that O’Carroll was anxious to hold on to the camp character, so rather than ‘kill him off’, the decision was made to replace him. Rory would simply get a new face thanks to the wonders of plastic surgery.
Viewers were left guessing exactly who he would be right up until the last moments of the Christmas special, Mammy’s Mummy, when his bandages were slowly unwound to reveal the ‘work’ he had had done.
In true Mrs Brown style, Agnes was the only character to acknowledge that his appearance was utterly different. ‘Who the f*** are you?’ she shouted to gales of laughter from the studio audience.
It was a question that popped into the minds of many viewers too with some venting their displeasure with the new Rory — which, given McKiernan’s very brief appearance, was somewhat unfair.
But then, replacing Rory Cowen was never going to be an easy task. There from the very beginning and loved for his inappropriate timing, many fans believe his role should have just been written out. Others, however, argued that McKiernan should be given a chance before declaring his performance a dud.
Currently on holiday in Orlando with his family, the Dublin man is set to fly from there to Australia in a couple of weeks to begin his first live tour with Mrs Brown’s Boys, where they will play almost 20 dates through to the end of February.
While his face may be brand new to fans of the hit sitcom, serious snooker fans may — despite the peroxide blonde hair — have recognised McKiernan from his days on the professional circuit in Britain. Back in the 1980s he was one of Ireland’s top amateur players, coming runner up in the 1986 Irish Amateur Championships to Gay Burns.
Shortly after that he left for London, where he spent the next five years playing against a host of other young men trying to make a living out of a game that was enjoying a surge in popularity with stars like Alex Higgins and Steve Davis.
In London, McKiernan — who is originally from Sutton in north Dublin — first stayed in B&Bs and supplemented his snooker income by working part time in a sex shop in Soho owned by snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan’s dad.
One of his housemates included former Irish world champion Ken Doherty and the two became firm friends.
‘We were good pals for a long time,’ Doherty told the Irish Daily Mail this week. ‘We grew up playing together on the snooker circuit, there was a big group of us in London at the same time and four of us shared a house together. We went over around 1988 and Damien was there for about five years.
‘He was always very outgoing and a great snooker player. He was good at several sports such as tennis and golf too. He was one of the top snooker amateurs in the 1980s.
‘I haven’t seen him in the last four or five years but we did spend a lot of time together when we were younger. He was a great character, good fun to be around.’
Some of their scrapes together included a rather bizarre spell spent living in a B&B in east London run by an Irish couple who had a very tempestuous relationship.
One night the landlord, after yet another huge row with his wife, decided to turn on all the gas rings on the cooker before going to bed. McKiernan got home later that night at around 3am, after a shift in the sex shop.
Smelling the gas, he didn’t turn on any lights and instead turned off the cooker and opened all the windows. He then alerted Doherty and the two packed their bags and found somewhere else to live.
Doherty was very surprised to see his old friend turn up on Mrs Brown’s Boys on Christmas night.
‘I’d no idea he was into the acting now, so I was pretty surprised to see him on the show,’ he explains. ‘I don’t think any of the lads knew. I’m a big fan, I love it and it was a shock to recognise the new Rory.
‘I was delighted to see him, it’s fantastic and it’s a great opportunity that Brendan has given him. Of course we’ve all known Brendan for years, he used to manage a couple of the snooker players back in the 1980s.
‘He was only starting off in the comedy, and he’d bring them to the home international championships,
‘He saved my life and I’ll always be grateful’
‘I was just trying so hard not to make a mess of it’
so that’s how we all knew him.
‘I’ve always loved Brendan’s comedy, we used to go see him in pubs around Dublin when he was hosting Blind Date nights and things like that, he’s one of the nicest men around.
‘I think it was a very bold move by Brendan to bring Damien in to Mrs Brown’s Boys, but then the show is all about Brendan’s family and his circle of friends, so it also makes sense,’ Doherty continued. ‘Obviously he knows what he’s doing, the show is doing amazingly well.
‘I thought Damien was good. It’s going to be a big transition, changing the actor who plays Rory, and I imagine it was quite daunting for Damien but I thought he handled it very well.
‘I’m delighted for him, this will be a great break for him. I think he’ll grow into the part.
‘I know people are used to Rory Cowen and loved him in the role. But I think people will grow to love Damien as well. He deserves this, he saved my life all those years ago and I’ll always be very, very grateful to him for that.’
Indeed it is a massive break for the father-of-two. Not only was the festive special the most watched show in Ireland on Christmas Day, pulling in an average of 695,000 viewers and 42% audience share on RTE One, it was the second most watched program in Britain, after the Queen’s speech, with an audience of 6.8million on BBC1, pushing Strictly Come Dancing into third place with 6.5million viewers.
The show, despite its detractors, continues to be a mega-hit for Brendan O’Carroll and his large cast of friends and family. So little wonder there was huge shock when Rory Cowen announced he was leaving the show last year.
Once Brendan O’Carroll’s manager, the role of Mrs Brown’s son was specially written for him and he quickly became a firm favourite with fans. But Cowen revealed a few months ago that he hadn’t been happy for the last couple of years with the show and that while on tour in Australia, bad news from home proved to be the final straw.
‘My mother collapsed and was taken to hospital, they thought she had a stroke,’ Cowen explained. ‘They didn’t realise it was dementia.
‘My sister told the doctors she had a brother in Australia and they said tell me to come home. But I couldn’t leave the show. What I was told was that the insurers were very sorry that she was sick but that if she dies, I can leave the show for a week.
‘Luckily she didn’t die but they told me that if someone is sick, it isn’t an excuse to leave the show.’
Cowen has gone on to become one of the voices of Gogglebox Ireland and is currently appearing in Polly And The Beanstalk at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.
Both he and O’Carroll have always insisted that his departure was on amicable grounds.
Cowen, however, has also clearly put the show that made him a legion of fans firmly in his past.
‘I won’t be watching Mrs Brown,’ he said earlier this week. ‘I’ll be watching Victoria on ITV. I love that series, it’s two hours long and I’ll be glued to that. I’ve no interest in Mrs Brown’s Boys.’
While Cowen has obviously slammed that door shut, another door has opened up for McKiernan. And he can presumably look forward to a very lucrative future — Cowen has admitted the financial returns from his time with the show have left him very well off.
‘There was no dispute over money or anything, in fact quite the opposite. I got so well paid that it enabled me to leave,’ he explained. ‘I didn’t need to stay.’
It’s perhaps not surprising that when O’Carroll rang him up one day, out of the blue, to offer him the gig, McKiernan didn’t take too long to make up his mind. He explained how the pair spoke over Facetime for 15 minutes before O’Carroll told him he thought he’d be great for the role.
‘I literally fell off the bed,’ McKiernan explained. ‘I was so excited. I thought about it, discussed it with my wife and my two boys. My wife couldn’t stop laughing and once she stopped she told me to go for it.’
Anxious to discuss the move in person, McKiernan made his way to England, where O’Carroll was touring with the show.
‘A few days later I texted Brendan and asked him if he could talk. He said: “Yes, ring me.” I said: “No, I’m outside your room in Newcastle.” I wanted to see him and Jenny (O’Carroll’s wife and co-star) face-to-face to accept and to give them a big hug.’
Joining the most watched entertainment show at Christmas is no small task, however. And McKiernan admitted he was nervous both at rehearsals and the recording of the show.
‘It felt like I was jumping without a parachute,’ he said. ‘It was then I realised that this is serious. I was so nervous. I just didn’t want to let anybody down. They are all such fantastic people with such warm hearts and I felt so much pressure to repay their belief in me. My nerves played a huge part and I was just trying so hard not to make a mess of anything but they supported me and they dragged me over the line. I don’t think I was breathing at the time.’
How fans will take to the new Rory still remains to be properly seen. First reactions may have been fairly harsh, but it’s still early days. And if there’s one thing Brendan O’Carroll has proved to be a master at, it’s knowing his audience...