Roisin’s Irish comedy roots
Funnywoman Conaty opens up on ‘loud, very funny’ extended family
COMEDIAN and actor Roisin Conaty has spoken about growing up in London in a “really funny” Irish family.
Roisin was a guest on the Tommy Tiernan Show on RTE and spent every summer in Ireland as a kid.
She said: “Growing up in Camden in the 80s, I never spent one single school holiday in London. The second the bell went, it was straight out and dumped into a field in Cork.
“My mum was from a family of 12 sisters and one brother. A lot of women… and none of them quiet. They inspired me. They were very glamorous, loud, very funny Irish women.”
While Conaty’s dad had a very dry sense of humour, her mum is “mad funny, you just don’t know what will come out of her mouth”.
Roisin, 45, spoke about her “really, really close” relationship with her mother. She said: “We speak 10 times a day. It’s always been that way.” Tiernan, 54, was also joined by musician Mik Pyro, 49, who opened up about being shy. He said: “I’m deeply shy. I also love talking to people, but still I find it hard to make eye contact as you can probably see.”
Pyro said his father had similar social anxiety and recalled how “freaked out” he’d be going into a shop. Mik said: “He was terrified of the world but he ran a company that had 200 employees.”
The show’s final guest was weightlifter Thammy Nguyen, 27, who spoke about her early life in Ireland after she arrived here as a six-year-old with her dad, having left her mother and brother back in Vietnam.
She said: “When I talk about my younger life I get really emotionally upset… I’m crying already because I actually don’t talk about my past. I didn’t have money, English, friends, no family… so it was just a sad time.”