SIOBHÁNMC Best known for embodying the character of Sister Michael in all her unholiness, Siobhán McSweeney’s epic delivery of those well-timed one-liners and perfected irreverence have aided Derry Girls in becoming one of the most watched, universally loved sitcoms of our time. On one particularly blustery day in February, myself and Siobhán McSweeney sat down on opposite sides of the Irish Sea for a candid conversation punctuated with laughter, moments of great insight and inklings of what it means to be a Derry Girl ahead of her Galway 2020 Wild Atlantic Women event alongside Susan McKay on March 7. For those amongst us who aren’t familiar with the show (all three of you!), Derry Girls is a sitcom created by the impressive mind of Lisa McGee, set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland circa 1990. Female led and incredibly outlandish, the show lends a lightheartedness to a time tainted with political turmoil not too long ago, all while remaining hilarious. It’s the ordinary moments of friendship and shared experiences that make the programme what it is and the third season is in the pipeline, so you’ve got plenty of time to get yourself acquainted with all the Derry Girls. Taking things back to the tender age of ten, something clicked within Siobhán while reciting poems at Speech and Drama down in her homeland of Cork. “We would learn off poems by rote and there was one that for some reason suddenly clicked with me. I wasn’t just saying words, I was telling a story... It felt like a secret, like I’d found some secret code in the language. That is a really palpable, tangible moment where I knew I wanted to do this.” Before taking on the formidable stance of Sister Michael - the patron saint of eye rolls and acerbic wit - Siobhán cut her acting teeth on stage, and so began her love affair with performing. “Like any relationship, you fall in love with someone because of one thing and as the relationship grows you fall in love with them even more because of something else. When I first started acting, in theatre, it was the camaraderie that I loved. The idea of the team effort, the instant family you have by doing a production. I loved the excitement of doing the show.” Throughout her stage and small screen career thus far, Siobhán has honed her very own definition of what an actress is; “a blaggard, a rascal, a chancer - somebody who’s astounded that she’s still getting away with it!”. Having spent a large portion of her life feeling that the glamorous world of acting lay just beyond her reach, Siobhán has found herself at the very crux of it. With Derry Girls quickly taking on the same amount of acclaim as the likes of Fr Ted and becoming immortalised through murals - people all around the world are getting a glimpse into life as a ‘90s Northern lass.
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March 2020
