TV favourite Tommy Tiernan admits he can’t watch himself on the box - unless he’s drunk.
The comedian, chat show host and actor says his fear of failure means he avoids shows like Derry Girls, where he plays the role of dad Gerry.
He’ll only tune in with a bit of Dutch courage, saying: “Sometimes when I get drunk in a hotel, I’ll watch it. But otherwise I don’t watch anything.
“I need other people’s approval too much to risk watching me fail. I do the work and let other people react to it.
“I’m not mad about Tommy Tiernan. My idea of hell would be watching my own stand up.”
The Navan man, 52, who settled in the coastal village of Barna, just outside Galway, said family is everything to him.
Married to Yvonne, his six children range in age from nine to 28.
He said: “I took a photograph recently of my six kids, my granddaughter and my wife and it seemed to me to be a privileged bounty.
“I was like a fella walking off Winning Streak after winning a car, holiday and 40 grand on the wheel.
“I can’t even define family. I feel very lucky to have all these people in my life and part of my tribe.
“No one would ever say that family life is easy but it’s the only cauldron worth boiling in.”
Not seeing his granddaughter Eva over lockdown was tough.
Speaking to the latest issue of the RTE Guide, he explained: “I didn’t get to see too much of Eva during the lockdowns, so that was difficult.
“My youngest child is nine and my grandchild is two. So I haven’t had that 30 or 40 year gap that grandads have from seeing a baby.”
At 19 he contemplated joining the priesthood but realised it wasn’t for him as he wanted children.
He said: “I was on the verge of joining the priesthood.
“I remember walking into the room that they had given me for the weekend and it was just a single bed, a locker, a crucifix and a Bible and I thought, this is perfect, this is all I need.
“But somewhere along the line something instinctively in me went ‘Actually, I think I’d love to have loads of kids instead.’”
His chat show - the Tommy Tiernan Show - became the most popular in Ireland last year when it overtook the Late Late in ratings, drawing in half a million viewers. The series returns for a new season on Saturday.
He said: “It was definitely a moment for me when more people watched us than the Late Late.
“I don’t control how people react to me or the show. It’s from the inside out as opposed to the outside in.
“I just concentrate on the person that’s in front of me and that’s all that I can do.
“From my point of view it’s not contrived, it’s the social reality of just sitting with someone and having a chat.”
The Tommy Tiernan Show airs on January 8 at 9.35pm on RTE One.
