Is Erin doing Panto?
Oh yes she is..
RORY Cowan has opened up about the heartbreak of facing his first Christmas without his mother.
Esther, 85, died last month after a long battle with dementia.
And the 59-year-old revealed that having spent every Christmas with her, he doesn’t know what will happen now she’s gone.
The grieving actor told the Irish Mirror: “I don’t know what to do.
“I’m torn between what I’m going to do on Christmas Day because normally I always have it with my mother.
“When I was 18 and I first started working, I said I was going away for Christmas and my mother said, ‘Oh no, I want all my family around me for Christmas. It could be my last one’. That’s the Irish mother’s guilt that they do.
“After that, I said I wouldn’t go away because if it was her last one, I’d never forgive myself.
“I’m 59 now and I’ve never had a Christmas away from my mother’s house but this year, I don’t know.” Rory, who stars in this year’s Olympia Panto, said while friends have invited him to spend the day with them he will probably check into a hotel.
The former Mrs Brown’s Boys star added: “I’ve been invited everywhere.
“There are friends of mine and they have invited me over but they all have families.
“I don’t want to intrude on a family
Christmas because I know it’s going to be a sad day and I don’t want to be bringing someone else down with me.
“If I get upset in the afternoon or something, you know yourself, I might be better in a hotel on my own.”
I’m thinking of maybe booking into the Shelbourne for a few nights.
“It’s my only day off – thank God I’m doing the panto this year because it’ll save me having to think.
“Christmas time is a time for thinking and I won’t be doing that, I’ll be working.”
When asked if he had spoken to his former friend Twink since he ordered her to leave his mum’s funeral last week, the Dubliner said: “I want nothing to do with her.
“She never takes responsibilty for the hurt or her own actions.
“She plays down everything and she says the most disgraceful and hurtful things to people.”
Rory yesterday joined his co-stars from the Polly And The Magic Lamp panto – Jake Carter, Erin Mcgregor, James Patrice and Ryan Andrews – for a special preview in a national school.
They performed for the students of Presentation Primary School in Terenure, South Dublin, ahead of the show opening next Friday.
I’m 59 and never had Christmas away from my mother’s house
RORY COWAN
DUBLIN YESTERDAY