Growing up, I wanted blond hair.

Now it comes to this stage of my career when I get to play the wicked witch all the time. You know you start off with Cinderella and then you end up playing the stepmothers.

The actor's job is to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are trying to portray as truthfully as possible.

I ate ostrich. I'm not very proud of it. I was going through a very experimental period and probably during foot and mouth. It was exquisite, but I felt very guilty.

I am concerned that there's a cavalier attitude to the Irish Peace Process. What poor memories some have; I remember only too well the bag searches, the bomb scares and deaths. As they say, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

My kids will never need a bodyguard because they'll have me.

A lot of first-time mothers worry about how they will cope. But I'm more patient than I thought I would be even though there are good days and bad days.

My mother was a woman of the '50s who had a family in the '70s while finding her political and feminist voice. She could make marvellous three-course meals after teaching all day but hated it. Because of that legacy, it took me a long time to realise the delights of the family table.

My parents have a brilliant ear for languages and mimicry and accents, which I think I've inherited - that I can listen to things and pick them up.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my career but the biggest mistake I've made is to turn down work.

Ballykissangel' made me a household name, and I am enormously grateful for that, but I don't feel it would ever have developed me into a better actress had I stayed.

A lot of actresses say they are 24 when they are 34 but I find that ridiculous. I wish we didn't succumb to the youth-is-all ideology in this industry, because there is a huge audience out there who want to relate to characters of their own age played by actors of their own age.

I'd never scan the starters and main courses on a menu in a restaurant as a child. I'd want a dessert for starter, for main course and for dessert.

I was a waitress at a really rundown Italian restaurant in Dublin, for about a week, at 16. I thought it was going to be romantic - overhearing affairs and watching first-time couples all loved up. But instead I was just running about constantly.

The main thing I've done for my children is not to give them a stupid name, like actors do.

I really want to work with Mike Leigh.

I want to interact creatively with the directors I work with - it's a thrilling way to work.

I've been very lucky with having a run of working with very special people and it just makes you work harder.

It's a collective experience when you're making TV. You think of all the people who work hard to make this extraordinary and you just hope that it works well.

I was always quite mature as a child and as I get older I'm regressing.

I never read the good press and never read the bad press. If you believe the good press you're finished. If you believe the bad press, you won't be able to continue.

I never discuss my troubles in a relationship. It's best to just keep those thoughts to yourself.

Because I don't live there anymore, I've fallen in love with London again.

As long as you're chasing something, that keeps you alive, right?

I watched 'Lagerfeld Confidential,' which was such an insight into the daily life of a maverick designer.

I didn't grow up reading magazines; I was very much in an environment where that would have been deemed trivial, frivolous.

I don't have a great relationship with food.

I was pregnant with my first child and so gloriously happy. I felt fecund and powerful.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) runs in my family, as do other mental health problems.

I don't want to be known as 'oh, Dervla, when she's on stage she's very good but she's terribly dreary', or 'another heavy night with Kirwan.'

I'm obviously slightly ill, because there is a burning desire to be perfect in me. It's probably the Catholic, or the ex-Catholic in me.