Diarmuid de Faoite, star of the new TG4 series Corp + Anam, talks to EOIN BUTLER
What is ‘Corp + Anam’?
It’s a new TG4 series about a journalist who is a bit of a Jack Russell character: small and cranky but when he sinks his teeth into a story, he doesn’t let it go. The show tackles issues like paedophilia, child abuse, police corruption, boy racers and road deaths. Meanwhile, at home, the guy’s family life is falling apart. His wife might have loved him once, but that was a long time ago.
So it’s a comedy?
It’s dark, sure. At times we were asking ourselves, should we throw in a few jokes maybe? But I think it works really well. It grabs the audience’s attention and it doesn’t pretend to offer easy answers.
The show is billed as “the Irish language, HBO style”. Are the opening titles – which include graphic footage of childbirth – a bit over the top?
Opening credits set the programme up for the viewer. The close-up of the fox carcass, for example, lets people know this is a hard-hitting show. It’s like the Loudon Wainwright lyrics: “There’s a dead skunk in the middle of the road and he’s stinking to high heaven.” Some of our storylines stink, but they stink because there’s an element of truth to them.
That’s my headline. “Some of our storylines really stink,” admits TG4 star.
No, I mean they’re hard hitting in what they say about our society.
Was it a coup to have Maria Doyle Kennedy as a co-star on the show?
Absolutely, I didn’t even know she spoke Irish. I suppose, given her long association with people like Liam Ó Maonlai and Fiachna Ó Braonáin, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. She was wonderful to work with. There were no airs and graces. She’s a great person and a consummate professional.
Just once I’d like an actor to say of their co-star, “you know what, I didn’t care for that person”. It’s never going to happen, is it?
Sorry, Maria was a joy to work with. She was a dote.
The show depicts the Irish language being used in some pretty unlikely contexts – among corrupt cops, online sexual predators and even during a 999 call. Is the viewer required to suspend disbelief?
For too long, people felt you couldn’t write something in Irish that wasn’t credible within a specifically Gaeltacht context. Darach has done a courageous thing. He’s saying, this is the story I want to write and I’m writing it in Irish.
What about a gunman locked in a tense standoff with armed gardaí? I’m pretty sure even Seán Bán Breathnach himself would revert to English in that situation . . .
Ha ha, I like that. Look, what about all these science- fiction movies with aliens speaking English on the Planet Ukoton or whatever? In this story, Irish is the lingua franca. I don’t think it’s that difficult a leap to make. For Irish speakers, it’s probably as much of an adjustment to get used to all the different accents and dialects. But I think it stands up with the best of international film and television.
You’re well known through your association with Pádraic Ó Conaire.
Yes, he’s my muse. Pádraic is a funny old buck. His ghost seems to have knocked on my door and decided to go on a bit of a journey with me over the last 10 years. He lived at such an interesting time in history, yet he was an amazing character in his own right. He was a great friend of the likes of Michael Collins, Micheál Mac Liammóir and Austin Clarke. He campaigned for de Valera in Clare in the 1917 election. I read his story and suddenly he wasn’t just a writer, I was fascinated by the man and his story.
Didn’t Ó Conaire inspire an internet hoax?
He did. Ó Conaire wrote a story called M’asal Beag Dubh, which told of how a Traveller once sold Ó Conaire a very dodgy donkey. Told him, “Oh sure, it’s faster than a racehorse. If you gave him a feed of oats you’d keep him going for a year.”
Of course, as soon as Ó Conaire buys the donkey and gets him out of town, the donkey stops dead in his tracks. Turns out to be the laziest yoke he ever met in his life.
So what was the hoax?
A couple of years ago, there were reports on the internet about a young Moldovan soccer player, a prodigy, called Masal Bugduv. Apparently, Arsenal were trying to sign him and there were lots of other clubs interested. He appeared on the London Times list of football’s top 50 rising stars. It was really well done. The Times even had to publish an apology.
