No culture shock for Sean McGinley as many of his fellow Irish are abroad

FOR several years Sean McGinley has been heading across the Atlantic from June to December to shoot a crime series on CBC, Canada’s national television station. 

The hit series, Republic of Doyle, which is set in Newfoundland, has ran for six seasons and is showing on UTV Ireland at present.

McGinley plays the dad of a family-run private investigator firm, the Doyle PI Agency.

There is as much comedy as crime in the drama. His son — who is played by the show’s creator and lead actor, Allan Hawco — continually rubs off McGinley’s character for the gags.

“Culturally, in that part of Canada like in Ireland, males aren’t that good at communicating emotion and feelings, especially fathers praising sons,” says McGinley.

“They don’t tend to do that very often even though there are moments in the story that cry out for it. You know a son saves a father’s life and you think the father would say, ‘thanks’, but they’re barely able to do that.

“There’s great comic potential in that. The father and son express themselves more through irritation and crankiness. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. There’s a lot to be said for reticence.”

St John’s, which is the capital of of Newfoundland and Labrador, is one of the show’s principal locations.

With eye-catching, multi-coloured houses, it provides a stunning backdrop to the crimes that unfold on its backstreets.

“The brutality of the climate brings with it a certain humility. They don’t take themselves too seriously. There’s a strong sense of community there, which maybe goes back to the heyday of the fishing industry, which has gone through the floor. It’s made them very adaptable.”

Newfoundlanders speak with an accent that is uncannily like that of Irish people, following centuries of migration.

McGinley makes the point that Irish communities abroad tend to be a mix of people from the 32 counties, but Newfoundland is rare in that it draws predominately on settlers from the Waterford-Wexford region.

There are a lot of Walshes and Doyles in the area.

“The fishing boats used to come from the west coast of England across the Irish Sea to Wexford.

“They’d pick up slave labour and go across the Atlantic and fish off the Grand Bank for the summer, winter in St John’s, fish the following summer off the Grand Bank again and after two years the slave labour would have to go back home because the Brits didn’t want the place overrun with rowdy Irish.

“A lot of these people when they were wintering in St John’s got to like the place, didn’t want to go home to Ireland and skipped west to the interior of Newfoundland.

“Historically, that’s where the accent came from.”

Russell Crowe acted in the opening episode of Season Three.

“He’s a fan of the show,” says McGinley.

“He knows people in Newfoundland. He’s a musician as well. A very good friend of his called Alan Doyle, who is a musician with a band called Great Big Sea — who are very big in Canada — is from St John’s. Through that connection, the boys asked Russell would he do a stint on the show, and he said, ‘Gladly.’ And he did. He was great.”

• Republic of Doyle; UTV Ireland, 11pm Sunday.