I am very scatty, I don't follow things through, I forget things. I am not perfect.
Dervla Kirwan
Who hasn't had an argument with their mother-in-law?
True Dare Kiss' is a gothic drama about a highly dysfunctional Mancunian family who, after 20 years, reconvene for the funeral of their father. I wanted to play Phil because I really liked the character, and there is an element of mystery about her - which I can't reveal.
When I look at a magazine and I see Kate Winslet, I will buy it because Kate lends it a sense of achievement: she is brilliant, sexy, a mother.
Yoga is great for easing my back pain. It also helps me keep stress at bay, which is something I can suffer from.
The very nature of acting is one minute you're up and the next you're down; one minute you're in favour and the next you're forgotten. You go away and you come back again.
There's still, dare I say it, a cultural propaganda against the Irish, that we are, as women, 'feisty.' I hate that word.
Getting pregnant proved to be a hell of a shock but it's really exciting.
As a chind in Dublin, I can remember having my plate piled high with four or five vegetables - and I'm convinced to this day that my mother's home cooking helped to ward off illness.
Yeah, I talk to everyone. I think that's the secret, you know. Keep it friendly, keep it warm. People just want to connect, don't they, at the end of the day?
I think if you contribute to a job, and it's repeated and repeated, and sold over the world, and the producers are making millions, you should benefit from it.
It does annoy me when I walk into a room and there are six men over the age of 40 with, let's just say, a major gut problem, and they're saying 'hang on there Dervla, don't eat your chocolate cake at dessert.'
I moved to London when I was 18 to develop my acting career, but I still love going home to Ireland to recharge my batteries.
I am all for high art but I owe it to myself to be clever about it and do commercial things too.
Twenty or 30 years ago, certainly when my mother was my age, I'm sure she felt things were pretty over for her. You had your kids when you were 20. You brought them up. They left home. Then what do you do? While I feel genuinely optimistic. Well, I have no other choice.
I used to be nervous about not working and so would work for the sake of it.
I think I've got some actor's form of ADHD. I just can't do the same thing day in, day out.
Growing up, I wanted blond hair.
My favourite designers are Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel and Givenchy, but I wish I had loads of money to spend on them.
I'd much rather go for a long walk than spend an hour in the gym.
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.
