Deirdre O'Kane: 'Women’s rights are being taken away — we can’t be complacent'

From comedian and podcast host to actress and speaker, Deirdre O’Kane is a whirling dervish of activity. Deirdre McArdle catches up with one of Ireland’s most prolific stars between gigs and podcast recordings, and finds out why another acting gig is top of her list of priorities

Sat, 08 Mar, 2025 - 02:00

Deirdre McArdle

“You wouldn’t catch anyone calling their daughter Deirdre now. We’re a dying breed.”

Deirdre and I, also Deirdre, are lamenting the lack of new Deirdres in the world. I was telling her about the time I once shared a house with two other Deirdres. It wouldn’t happen now she assures me. But with O’Kane as a namesake, you’d be lucky to bear the name.

When we speak, she’s gigging around the UK and Ireland for her tour O’Kaning It, as well as celebrating the first birthday of her podcast, Keep It Tight, which she hosts with comedian Emma Doran.

“I can’t believe we’ve been doing it for a year. It feels like a few months. There was cake the other day when we were recording and I guessed everyone else’s birthday before realising it was the podcast.”

That must mean you’re enjoying it, I say.

“It’s been so good for me, in so many ways. It’s been an absolute gift. When you’re a comic and you’re writing all the time, or you’re performing, it’s actually quite solitary — you’re on stage alone and you write alone. I really like every Monday morning going in and actually seeing Emma [Doran] and Laura [Greene, producer], talking and actually getting the funny out of my mouth. It’s much better for my brain.”

It’s giving O’Kane a space to keep on top of her craft in an organic way: “Doing the podcast really oils the cogs of my brain.

I know I have to be entertaining, not that I’m forcing it, but I’m aware that I can’t be dull. I’ve noticed that I’m more aware of language, and how I use it.

The audience is enjoying it too, which O’Kane confesses is a real surprise. “The fact there’s an audience for this is so gratifying, and it’s a relief that it’s another stream of income that is not back breaking.”

Capitalising on the popularity of the podcast, O’Kane and Doran will play their first live show in Dublin at the Olympia Theatre on May 11.

“It’s a completely different animal doing it live, but we have done it twice already, in the Cork Opera House and in Galway. Now we learned a lot, and there are things we would change. So we might have a guest, we haven’t decided yet, but we want to create more of a spectacle.”

The Olympia live show is happening in the middle of a series of O’Kane’s gigs for her own show. With all that gigging and travelling, does she get tired?

“I do, I do get tired. I’m tired today now. This particular week I had three London dates which were gorgeous, then the following day I had the Iftas, and I had a gig on the Sunday night. Look it, it just goes that way sometimes.”

With all that rushing around, O’Kane says the main issue is trying to fit everyday life into the middle.

“I realised that this afternoon is the only one in the foreseeable future that I can get my roots done. And I have to get them done, it has to happen. And of course, I have to put food on the table and all the other normal things that need doing. On a day when I have a show and I’ve got a long drive, and I have things to do at home, that’s when it gets exhausting. Listen, it’s a fine balance, and sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t.”

Long before O’Kane was a household name as a comedian, she was an actress. And even though stand-up is her “bread and butter” now, O’Kane dips between the two.

Deirdre O'Kane at the IFTA Awards 2025. Picture: Brian McEvoy

“I can go back to acting easily, it’s like getting back on a bike. I know it. I can switch between the two pretty easily. Stand-up is what I do most of the time. But it is lovely to have a bit of variety. Sometimes I need a break from that solitary element of stand-up, and doing an acting job, meeting new people, working with new people, that’s lovely.”

O’Kane has been busy on the acting side this year. She features in the new movie – Fran the Man – by her husband, writer and director Stephen Bradley, which launches at the Dublin Film Festival. “I think he has a hit on his hands,” she says proudly.

She also has a lot of TV projects coming out this year. “I did a show with Denis Leary for Fox called Going Dutch. I did Chris O’Dowd’s Small Town, Big Story, and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, which is the new series from Lisa McGee. I always have a couple of projects on the go at any one time.” However, she would like more acting roles: “When I take a break from my show, I need to do something else for a while. I’m not ready to face the blank page!”

The blank page fills O’Kane with dread. Starting the writing process again after a successful tour feels like a mountain to climb, she says. Right now she’s at a sweet spot with her tour; “it’s a thing of beauty, it’s perfectly formed”. That’s because she polishes and refines the show on the road, and it takes a while to get to that place.

“The thought of starting again with a chunky, eggy piece of material is daunting. And there’s no shortcut, it’s hard graft writing a show.”

Deirdre O'Kane: I’m not ready to face the blank page

O’Kane brings a lot of her own life into her shows, and that’s part of the reason why she fills that life up.

“Otherwise what am I writing about? If you’re just sitting on a boat living the life of a comedian, travelling from gig to gig, what are you writing about? That’s the point, I’ve got to do other things so I have material.”

At the moment, O’Kane is doing most of her writing in what she calls her bed office. “The bed office has become my latest spot for writing and that’s just to do with the cold. I’m not going to put the heating in the whole house. So I put the electric blanket on the bed and try to ruminate.”

Sounds good to me, I say.

“It works. I have a real problem, I think, writing in the house, but at least if I’m in the bed, I think, ok, you’re here now, you’re not going to get up and move. But if I attempt to sit at the table, well, that’s impossible, because I can see the washing and the dirt and all the jobs that have to be done.”

As she looks for more acting roles, I ask O’Kane how she feels about the shift we’re seeing in the film and TV industry towards more meaty roles for women over the age of 30.

“It’s so wonderful to see. We’re seeing more women taking the reins of producing.

Women are making this happen, and are pushing themselves to take control. And we’re seeing that people do want to hear these stories.

Even with this movement though, O’Kane says we’re far from done with shifting the goalposts of equality.

“We’ve got plenty of people trying to take it backwards. That’s the real heartache looking at what’s happening in America: Roe v Wade and women’s rights being taken away. It shows that we can’t be complacent and relax.”

That’s why O’Kane thinks International Women’s Day is still an important marker to call attention to all the issues that still affect women around the world, from the gender pay gap and unaffordable childcare to the stripping away of women’s basic rights in countries like Afghanistan.

“It gives us a moment to remind ourselves of the millions of women around the world who don’t have freedom, who don’t have equality or anything like it. We are not there yet, but it is also important to celebrate how far we’ve come.”