Seamus O’Rourke: 'These bachelors couldn’t understand why women weren't more into them’ 

The actor is in Cork Opera House with his take on John B Keane's The Love Hungry Farmer

Seamus O’Rourke brings The Love Hungry Farmer to Cork Opera House on Friday night.

Seamus O’Rourke’s connections with Cork go back a long way. As a Gaelic football-mad child, he was enchanted with Cork’s 1973 All-Ireland winning football team, even though he grew up on a farm at the other end of the country in Co Leitrim. Later in the 1980s, O’Rourke played inter-county football for Leitrim. Of Cork’s 1973 team, which was captained by goalkeeper Billy Morgan, it was the dashing, buzz-cut Jimmy Barry-Murphy who caught O’Rourke’s imagination.

“I was a huge Cork fan,” says O’ Rourke, “to the point where for my confirmation name, I was already Jimmy (ie Seamus) so I couldn’t take that name. There was a fella in my class called Barry and I didn't like him, so I couldn't call myself Jimmy Barry, so I ended up with my confirmation name being ‘Billy’ after Billy Morgan. I never met Billy, but he’s always been a hero of mine.”