Pauline quits housekeeping to become a drunkard

ACTRESS, comedian and writer, Pauline McLynn, seems to have boundless energy.

Best known for her role as Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, she was in Cork for the launch of the Everyman Palace Theatre’s summer season.

Pauline, who was promoting the new Tom Murphy play, The Drunkard in which she plays three roles, never stopped talking all day. She’s a busy lady who is writing her fourth book, which is due out in May, and is called The Woman on the Bus.

“It’s literally about a woman who gets off a bus in Clare. She’s very, very drunk and when she comes to a few days later, she doesn’t know who she is. So she gets the chance to become who she’d like to be for a while. I don’t know how the story ends yet.

In The Drunkard Pauline will play an old granny, an old whore and a maniac called Agnes.

It opens on July 25 at the Everyman and it will be her first stage appearance in eight years.

“It’s a Victorian melodrama about the evils of drink which is very timely,” said Pauline.

“It’s a little bit moralistic but in a good way. There’s plenty of singing and dancing in it.

Pauline says she enjoys a glass of wine “and of course, lashings of cups of tea” in keeping with her Mrs Doyle character.

“I gave up drink for Lent. After 41 years, it was good to take a break, not that I’ve been drinking for the full 41 years,” she laughs.

Pauline is still recognised as the housekeeper in the Fr Ted series.

“Sometimes I pay attention it. Other times I don’t. Every day, people want an autograph for their son or whatever.”

Married to Richard Cooke who runs the Cat Laughs in Kilkenny, Pauline divides her time between Dublin, Kilkenny and London. The couple don’t have any children.

“It just hasn’t happened. It’s not deliberate although I’m crowing about it because loads of my friends are pregnant. I go around saying I’m not childless, I’m just child free!”

The Drunkard will first be performed at the Galway Arts Festival. “That’s just to hone it for the Cork crowd,” joked Pauline.