Eilish keeps it all in the family

On-screen she’ll be part of the mayhem with Mrs Brown and the gang. Off-screen she’ll be spending time with loved ones. Either way, Christmas is centred on family for Eilish O’carroll. She spoke to Claire O’mahony

Beyond the staples at this time of year – tinsel, carols and consuming an ill-judged amount of mince-pies – everyone has their own version of “It’s not Christmas without…” at could be a December 25th sea swim, or maybe your cat destroying the tree.

And for a substantial amount of people – over 350,000 last year – it’s not Christmas without sitting down to watch the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas specials. But Eilish O’carroll, who plays Winnie Mcgoogan in the hit show, won’t reveal what Agnes and her motley crew of family and friends will be getting up to in this year’s festive spectacle. “I can’t tell you anything except that they’re great craic, very funny and fresh,” she teases.

Actor, writer and sister of Mrs Brown creator Brendan O’carroll, Eilish has starred as Winnie, Agnes’ dim-witted best friend, since the show began in 2011. e character is loosely based on a friend of her mother Maureen, who was called Nancy.

“She was my mother’s best friend, con dante and stooge,” Eilish explains. “Nancy is de nitely Winnie, except Nancy was an extremely intelligent woman, as was my mother. ey both intellectually matched each other and they would debate – oh my God, politics, you name it – and were well-versed on what was going on in the world, and never missed the news. ey had very di erent opinions on things and had erce rows.”

Given the familial connections in the Mrs Brown cast – as well as brother Brendan, there’s Eilish’s sister-in-law Jennifer Gibney, niece Fiona and nephews Danny and Eric, and grand-nephew Jamie – it’s impossible not to wonder what the dynamic is like.

“We’re like any other family,” says Eilish, who is mother to two boys from her former marriage. “We’re not Little House on the Prairie, but we have this great ability where we can actually have a falling-out but we’re there for each other, so it doesn’t last.

“Fundamentally, for me in particular, it’s been absolutely wonderful working with Danny and Amanda (Woods – Danny’s reallife wife, who plays Betty in the show) and Fiona, and now Eric is on the road. I’ve had the privilege of seeing them grow up. I missed my own children; they were well grown-up and they live in the UK, so it was a great comfort to have the others so close and we really do get on like a house on re.”

e 71-year-old has been on the road since mid-august with a UK tour of Mrs Brown Rides Again, so a return to her home in Dublin’s North Strand is very welcome. Having previously lived in Cork, Eilish relocated to Dublin four years ago.

Not that she’ll have much time to sit back and relax, because her one-woman show Live, Love, Laugh is currently midway through a 10-day run at the Viking eatre in Clontarf. Deeply funny and very moving, the play delves into her life, including two failed marriages and coming out as a lesbian aged 50. Eilish has been open in the past about dealing with the loss of her two sisters, and the physical and psychological abuse she endured during her rst marriage. Is it painful for her to talk about these things?

“I think it’s painful to talk about painful things, painful experiences, but it’s worse not to talk about it because pain and sadness will nd somewhere in your body to live and reside, and so it’s always with you,” she says. “e only way you can get it out is to express it again. I prefer being an open book rather than a closed closet because I just feel being open is healthier for me and everybody.

“I suppose I didn’t realise it until I wrote my own show, which is extremely open and honest, when people were saying to me, ‘God, you’re so courageous’. I thought they meant getting up on stage, but they went, ‘No, we meant the content’. And I thought, oh, my God, maybe I’ve been too honest. But actually it made me aware that I’m not the only person in the world who has these feelings; so many other women and men related to them and hopefully started talking about them.” is year, she and her partner Marian O’sullivan celebrated their 20th anniversary. Although Marian still lives in Cork, she too might relocate. Eilish says, “I have to say she spends more time in Dublin than she spends in Cork city.

‘No,’ she said, ‘I’d never live in Dublin, couldn’t ever live in Dublin.’ at’s slowly changing!”

Eilish is undecided yet as to how she’ll spend Christmas, but it will involve Jacko: “my heart”, as she calls her Maltesejack Russell cross that she got during the pandemic.

“Every year I say, we’re going to go away for Christmas. I’m looking for a hotel that will actually be dogfriendly. I don’t mean we can keep him in the bedroom while we go down and have our Christmas dinner. No, he sits down underneath the table with me,” she says. She might also go to one of her brother’s homes, which is what she usually does, but is unlikely to travel to her sons in the UK – preferring instead to spend quality time with them in the

New Year, when the mayhem of Christmas is over.

“It’s up in the air at the moment so I’m de nitely open to o ers.

All invitations will be duly considered!”

Live Love Laugh is at Viking eatre from December 12-16, see vikingtheatredublin.com