NUALA McKeever is perhaps best known as one of West Belfast's finest comedians having taken both the stage and screen by storm with her appearances as Emer in Give My Head Peace to the hilariously relatable Mickey's Ma on McKeever and who can forget those Translink adverts?
This week, we got a chat with her to find out more about the funny woman - from her love of deep fried Tofu, her (even more) famous relative and her hidden talent.
1) What’s your favourite childhood memory?
Learning to swim in the Duck Pond in Portstewart. My Daddy was holding me up and then I realised he was away at the other end of the pool and I’d done it myself!
2) If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
I’d live somewhere warmer!
3) What is your favourite meal?
I’m vegan. I’ve lost 39 pounds in weight since February this year, eating pretty much the same food every day. So my dinner, which I LOVE, (and I realise a lot of people will think, “EEuuugh!”) is deep-fried Tofu with garlic and chilli, with a big salad with loads of different stuff in it. Yum!!!
4) What is your favourite drink?
Lady Grey Tea, very weak. Coffee, pretty strong. I gave up alcohol some years ago cos it was my favourite drink but it did me no favours…
5) What is your perfect accompaniment with a cup of tea/coffee?
A great chat with a friend I haven’t seen for a while.
6) Where is your ideal holiday destination?
I have a real yearning to go back to Florence and just absorb the atmosphere. Otherwise, Donegal on a good summer’s day – couldn’t beat it with a big stick.
7) Where is the best place you have travelled to?
Don’t know about “best”, but most exotic was India – been there twice. Also I went to Central America years ago with the charity Trocaire, it was a working holiday. Those sort of very different places really stay with you forever.
8) How do you like to relax?
Watching good films or tv dramas.
9) What do you love about Belfast?
I was driving home last week from the South and when I saw the first sign for Belfast, without thinking, I said outloud, “Mummy! Daddy!” Ha ha ha! It’s my home. That’s it. I can’t change the fact. It will always be my Motherland. I love the Nature on our doorstep – the trees and rivers, we are SO lucky!!! I love the craic. I love the humour. I love the way it’s easy to get around.
10) What do you hate about Belfast?
I don’t HATE anything about Belfast. What I don’t like is the same things that most cities suffer from – a size of population that allows us to tolerate people sleeping on the streets. If we were a village, this wouldn’t happen. I don’t like the ability to shrug off responsibility. And of course, I really don’t like fundamentalist attitudes that have people believing that something about their own upbringing makes them better than someone else.
11) If you were stranded on an island with only one possession, what would it be?
A ticket off the island….
12) Do you prefer a book or a Netflix series?
Depends. I read a lot and I Netflix a fair bit. Well, I used to. Can’t find much anymore to grip me.
13) If you could recommend one book to someone, what would it be?
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows. It’s told through the eyes of a young girl and has a To Kill A Mockingbird feel – a girl on the cusp of understanding adults and how the world works. The sort of writing where you pause and re-read a line or a paragraph, just because it’s so beautiful.
14) Who is your favourite musician?
It’s a toss-up between two men whom I am lucky to count as friends. Paul Brady, and Barry Devlin of Horslips.
15) What is your favourite piece of music?
Impossible to choose one. I love so much, from Faure’s Requiem to Uptown Funk and almost everything by Paul Brady. He is a song-writing genius.
16) If you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would they be?
My mother’s mother who died when I was 9. My Father, who died when I was 22 – I would love to talk to him as an adult who’s done years of therapy – mostly about him! And the man of my dreams, whoever he is, wherever he is!
17) What is your ideal pet?
I live with Lolli, a cat who came to me from a shelter 14 years ago. She is one of the big loves of my life. I would never call an animal a pet. I dislike intensely how human beings treat animals as possessions/things/food. I think we are lucky and blessed to be around other animals. If we took the approach to the rest of life on Earth, that we are privileged to share this place with them, then our world would be a whole lot happier.
18) Who is your biggest inspiration?
My ex-husband, Sean Carson, was the person who encouraged me to write comedy. He supported me financially when I was starting out freelance. His seeing me as I wanted to be seen was the greatest gift ever and for that I’m eternally grateful.
19) What piece of technology could you not live without?
Well, I could, but I would prefer not to to have to live without the coffee plunger and the TV.
20) What is your hidden talent?
I dunno! If it’s hidden, how would I know? I can play the flute, does that count?
21) Name one thing that people don’t know about you.
I’m related to Liam Neeson! His Auntie was my Da’s cousin.
