The Dublin stage school owner on trans healthcare rights, Barry Keoghan and losing his father to cancer
What’s your earliest memory?
My mother and father always went above and beyond to make me feel like a total prince as a child when it came to birthdays, and it was never a one-day event.
When and where were you happiest?
Weirdly, I was very content during a period of the pandemic. We moved to a little cottage in the Slieve Gullion mountains in Newry. We had mountains and lakes around us and our dogs.
What is your biggest fear?
That I am not good enough and I’ll wake up and everything I’ve achieved and worked so hard for will be gone.
What’s your least, and your most, attractive trait?
My least attractive trait is I find it hard to open up to people at times. My most attractive is that I will always have time for anyone who needs me.
What trait do you deplore most in others?
I really dislike when people can’t read a room. If you’re in a space and someone just can’t see that its a collective of people and not all about them, that really grinds my gears.
What’s the first thing you’d do if you were taoiseach?
I would focus in on trans healthcare rights and find ways to make sure that each of our trans brothers and sisters were cared for without invasive measures, and shorter lists to be seen to when it comes to being who they want to be and living comfortably in their own skin.
Who would you most like to go for a pint with?
My dad. He passed 10 ten years ago before he could see any of the success he always wanted me to have. I’d love to sit him down now that I am a fully realised adult who has a better view on life than I did when he was alive, listen to him better and learn from him a little more.
Which fictional character do you most identify with?
Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek, mainly because I want to live in her head for a day or two.
What is your most treasured possession?
My two dogs, Jimmy and Billy, who are a Blue Staffy and a Boxer. I had dogs growing up but it wasn’t until I got my two boys that I really felt a love for dogs as if they were my own children.
What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
TikTok. As a near 37-year-old man, I really shouldn’t be scrolling through videos of dogs, people falling down and news articles on a social media app, but listen, sue me.
Who would play you in a film of your life?
There is something about thinking about Barry Keoghan live a life of drag madness and showbiz glamour playing me, a humble boy from Tallaght, who was just trying to make a dream happen.
Is there life after death?
Absolutely. I didn’t believe in any of it until Halloween night about 13 years ago, a medium contacted me out of the blue to say my nanny had come to her and needed to talk to me. That night changed my life but its definitely one for the autobiography.
What’s your favourite word?
Yes. I can’t stop saying it.
What’s the last TV show you binge-watched?
Trigger Point starring Vicky McClure is edge-of-your seat drama. Definitely one to watch.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Don’t sweat the small stuff, have fun, treat yourself right, work on your fitness, don’t try over impress and just let go.
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
To read people’s minds. People confuse me daily so I’d love an insight into how some people think and act.
What person would you like to have met?
I would have loved to sit down with Amy Winehouse for an hour and just talk through her music. There hasn’t been an artist like her since.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Fix You by Tyler Ward. It’s a cover of the Coldplay song. When my dad was dying of cancer, I remember playing it for him and telling him I would do everything to fix him. Since then, if it comes on anywhere, I know it’s him helping me and guiding me.
Paul Ryder’s radio show on 98FM is on every Friday and Saturday from 11am-3pm; @itspaulryder
