How agreeable are you?
I would describe myself as fairly agreeable. As a woman, well, we’re raised to be agreeable, so I’m always conscious of that and I try to be as feisty and unagreeable as I can, sometimes, because that can be really important in terms of achieving a common goal. In the workspace, when you’re campaigning, you have to be willing to be provocative and put forward a case and a message that maybe not everyone is comfortable with at times.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
My middle name is Brigid, and I hated it when I was growing up because I thought it was really old-fashioned, but now it’s cool. I come from a long line of Brigids – grannies, my mom, my niece has the name – and as I grow older it has become really special because now it’s part of my family heritage.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
We’re a tiny island, so anywhere near the sea is a favourite place, particularly the beaches of Cork and Kerry. I absolutely love them. When I was growing up, we spent a lot of time holidaying in Ireland, so I got to see all of the coastline from Donegal to Kerry. It was the wilder Atlantic way when I was growing up.
There weren’t as many container boxes selling posh coffee and things like that, but we definitely had the chips and the ice cream, and the sand in our sandwiches, as we listened to GAA matches on the radio with the car doors open. Even though I live in Dublin now, the sea is part of my DNA, part of who I am. When I look at the sea, it brings me peace.
RM Block
Describe yourself in three words.
I would say I’m energetic, although my children probably don’t like that first thing in the morning. I’m definitely collaborative and I’m grounded.
When did you last get angry?
I’ve been working in human rights and social justice, climate justice, for about 20 years, so anger is there all the time because you’re witnessing, up close, really big injustices. That anger is very useful because it energises you and spurs you on in the work you have to do, but it’s important that you turn the anger into something positive, which is solidarity in action.
One of the times I’ve been the angriest was working with survivors of symphysiotomy, women who had their pelvises broken during childbirth. Watching their bravery, the disabilities and the health issues they were experiencing as older women was quite shocking. It was hard for me, so I can only imagine how hard it was for them.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
What I have lost as a Cork woman is the last two All-Irelands this year, the senior camogie final to Galway and the hurling final to Tipperary, and I would like to have them back, please, thank you very much. I really believed they were ours to win, but we lost them both and it was heartbreaking.
What is your strongest childhood memory?
I was very close to my nan from Co Kerry and the two of us used to get the train to Tralee. She never had a car and we never got a bus, so we’d carry our bags and put our thumbs out. We always got a lift and more often than not we’d get into a car and somebody would say, “Oh, hello, Mrs O’Shea. Are you heading back out the road?” That’s not something that happens now. As I get older, the strongest memories are of times that will never be repeated.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order and has this defined you?
I’m the third of four girls, so I think the biggest defining point is that we didn’t have a brother. I was supposed to be the boy and then the fourth sister was supposed to be the boy, but it was the four of us. I’m really fortunate in that I’ve got three great sisters and we all get on, so where we come in the family is less important really.
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I think that I will become part of the natural world, albeit in a different form, but I have no idea what that form could be. I don’t think about dying too much, but we’re talking about death a lot more now, we’re demystifying it, and that’s a good thing because people can hold deep anxiety about it. It’s going to happen to all of us, of course, so we should be able to talk about it more openly and in a way that makes it less scary.
When were you happiest?
I’m a happy person, so I was happiest today cycling in the sunshine into work. It sounds really trite, but I’ve had a very fortunate life. I was very happy when my two babies were born and I’m happy bringing my dog for a walk.
If I had to choose a standout happiest moment, it was winning the Repeal Referendum and knowing that it wasn’t just about a campaign win, but rather a huge, collective force and that sense of solidarity across the country, men, women, different backgrounds, all moving in the same direction, working towards a shared purpose to achieve something.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
Apparently, I have a lot of doppelgangers. A lot of people say to me, “Do I know you?”, but they don’t know me. Or they say to me, “You look like so-and-so.” I reckon there are plenty of people out there who could play a short, curly-haired Cork woman.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
I’m not really big on regrets, but I have a lot, obviously, like most people. I’ve made certain choices to live in Dublin 7 so that I don’t have to commute, so that I can be with my children. I regret, or I struggle with the choice, that I don’t live near the sea or in the countryside. We did live near the sea at one point and it’s not that I regret moving because we did it for the right reasons, but it’s a hard choice to have to make.
Have you any psychological quirks?
Every single day, I have a single sheet of paper that lists what I’m going to do for that day. The list isn’t necessarily huge, but it has to be on paper. I do most of my life digitally, but in terms of working I have to use a pen and paper to write things down because there’s something between the physicality of writing it and how it enters my brain.
[ Katherine Zappone: ‘I didn’t really realise how crazy you can become with grief’Opens in new window ]
Using a pen slows you down and, even though you’re not aware of them, those milliseconds of reflection calm you. Because I’m energetic, I have a tendency towards pace, which can make you become frazzled very easily.
In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea. Deirdre Duffy will moderate a public conversation, Together for Nature, at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow on Saturday, October 11th as part of The Shaking Bog Festival’s Riverscapes initiative.
