Meet Tommy from Ireland

One of Ireland's most iconic Galway faces and Navan accents, Tommy spent a lot of his younger years moving around the country. Despite spending nearly 30 years in Galway he associates himself with Ireland rather than a county.  He did spend a brief three years living in Zambia as a child and while he has very little memory of his time there, he does find he is still drawn towards the vastness of the African skies. He has never been back.

I met Tommy after one of his lunchtime gigs "Work in Progress" in the King's Head. As the people filed out of the room statements like; "very funny", "I enjoyed that" and "I needed that" filled the air. Tommy was full of energy but it wasn't happy energy it was full work mode. He was already trying to figure out what went wrong and what went right in the show. His mind was pacing and you could see it in his eyes. After a few photos and a mention of Zambia all of that changed and this very calm man appeared. Mention Galway Bay and his eyes light up. Tommy has settled in Galway for the same reason he became a stand up comedian; it just fit. Thirty years later he still feels like he is lucky to live here and drives along the bay and into town multiple times a day. Simply because it makes him happy. 

We spoke about what it means to be a Irish Comedian. Tommy said the one place in the world where he gets overwhelmed by that sense of being an iconic Irish comedian is in Australia, when he plays the Sydney Opera House. He remembers standing behind the curtains and hearing a roar which can only be matched in Croke Park on All-Ireland final days. Tommy spends most of his time touring throughout Ireland, the UK, Europe and Canada. His favourite venue is City Limits, Cork, where Tommy said the audience are always up for a laugh and are generally just a happy bunch. This is where he will kick off his new tour "Under the Influence" on October 6th. 

Here at Wonky Eye we have followed Tommy since the late 90's in the GPO so it was nice to get a chance to sit down and talk to him. Behind the persona is one really lovely man.