Dara Ó Briain: 'Make a decision, commit to it, and then do the shit out of it'

Dara Ó Briain’s most recent stand-up show told the story of his attempts to find his birth parents. His new show focuses on what happened afterwards.

Dara Ó’Briain at St Stephens Green, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney

Dara Ó’Briain looms large on my computer screen, affable and engaging, if slightly windswept. He’s only a few miles from me, in the Shelbourne Hotel, but Storm Eowyn is about its business, and non-essential travel is verboten. And so, via Zoom, he stares wistfully out his sixth floor window, and describes for me an eerie scene.

“I am looking down Paul, on a weirdly empty city, and just as I say that, a lone man is cycling past. ‘Oh well, I’ve got to go to work.’ And is it only my impression or are you getting battered constantly by storms? We, that is people who live in London, graciously thank you for your sterling work in wind-breaking. Because the TV coverage of them is insane, and we’re like oh God, Ireland has been hit again.