Redamptive process of recovery, never shine away from politics, hes been a strong advocate for arish reunification and palestinian selfdetermination. Tag hicky, welcome to the show. Thanks man, sean, delated to be here, delated to have you. So tell me tog, ive recently read your book and uh, i was being mused by some of it, the honesty in the red in the book, and actually it was, it was an amazing book, and and its great to see. Its someone just put it out there like you did, particularly youre a comedian you know and youre not very very funny but also very very preferred that was and and and i really enjoyed it jesus thanks million man thank you and and the stuff mean your child grown up you want to tell us a bit about that yeah like id say it was a happy childhood you know so and this is the funny thing about drinking cuz alcoholism is a Mental Illness and thats kind of the premise of the book suppose i feel like in ireland people think of drink and drinkers and alcoholics as a kind of aberration, that theyve done something wrong morally, but the fact is that theyre sick and i was sick, but i wasnt always sick, and i suppose thats the point of the childhood, there was moments where i felt, and when i say sick, i mean you need something to treat the illness, and the illness really is kind of for me anyway anxiety, uncomfortableness, i think is i might have called it, um, but i wouldnt have put the term anxiety on it, but that anxiety would have. Come and it would have gone, you know, it wasnt something that was there all the time, it would kind of spike and it would spike in bizarre settings, like i remember being a kid and playing soccer with my buddies and just this kind of sense of gloom coming over myself and feeling uncomfortable in myself, um and like it was of kind of working class 80s cork, like i wasnt about to go home and you know call family meeting about it, we didnt talk about those kind of things and as i say when when i was struck but with a bit of. I probably thought i was mad, there was a big fear, whether it was just me or was my community, you didnt want to be mad, you know, mad people were taken away by men in white coats and they were brought to hospital, sometimes if your drinking got totally out of hand youd kind of wander in over the line into madness like and so and so hes gone away to some place and hes kind of locked up, thats what you didnt want, and that would have been a fear of mine from very early age cuz this anxiety, i wouldnt have called it that at the time, the feeling comes up, youre kind of going i mad, but then it would go. Of way again and id enjoy doing the things i did like playing football and hanging out with my mates and stuff and as i say i was a happy kid, i was obsessed with my dad, i used to kind of follow my dad around, he was good bit older, i was a real after thought in the family, i was quite young, but as i detail in the book, he was an ordinary man, but he was extraordinary to me, like he just seemed like he had life all figured out and whereas i felt like i was kind of caught up on myself, i was worried how i was coming across, did people like me uh, how do i get people to like me . He just seem to be breezing through life, not worrying about any of these things, you know, he just seemed to have figured out, and you also noted in the book that your savior was through acting and rating, well tell us a bit about that . Yeah, so the the uncomfortableness that i had to go back to that again, that could, you could get rid of that loads of different ways, when i was younger playing sport, i played soccer, reasonable level and carko wasnt a bad soccer player, and that would often take it away, but. Involved in performing or acting a bit, normally the type of acting i tried to do involved comedy and i suppose that was the origins of the comedy thing, putting on voices, making funny noises, taking the piss out of people in my family and doing impressions of them, all that kind of stuff uh and when i was performing and mostly in school and with friends and stuff, people would laugh and that was that was another addiction straight away like, but it definitely got rid of that feeling of uncomfortableness and it gave me a sense of. um that this is kind of the thing that im supposed to be at, and when i was doing the thing that i was supposed to be doing i felt and that i felt like i was enjoying it, again just that feeling of like theres something up with me, i feel uncomf. But i cant put my finger on it, just started to dissipate. So what was the spark then that led to career in comedy . I think one of the first moments that taught to myself i would like to do comedy was actually when i was kid and my sister and myself were very close and she was a real she had a real influential role on my taste and everything and she also had a really refined kind of sense of humor and kind of rick male and the young ones and all that type of kind of anarchic uh british. Comedy which loved, so i used to try and make her laugh and i thought if she laughed at something that i had said that that was a good bar you know that made my sister laugh cuuse she was funny um and then it it became kind of a thing of like oh how much can i get her to laugh and like oh she didnt like this thing and its like my first audience suppose i was also trying to make my mother laugh um and what not and then i remember going to so by secondary school i think you know the feeling of starting secondary school is was a fat kid as well right hope i can say fat i know probably not the the nice thing to say these days, but i am saying it about myself, um, and i got to school, youre fat, my hair was kind of weird, and youre just selfconscious, like youre kind of going, how i going to fit in here . My brothers, as i say, were tougher men and they probably would have went straight into the kind of like, ill kick your head in type of thing, and i knew i didnt really hit have that in me, but i knew i had a sharp tongue, and i knew it could make people laugh, and i also knew i could make people a bit scared cuz if they mocked you and you mock them back and other people laugh more, i was aware that that was a real strong currency, so um, i just fell into kind of making people laugh, and no one really bullied me and i kind of went to the top of the kind of social structure in school because uh, i was able to look after myself with my tongue, i suppose my fists, so um, that was the first inkling that i was kind of that it was good at it, but then you go on this whole journey of you, am i going to be so cocky as to demand the people sit in room and listen. To me because im so funny, like that for me thats an incredibly, its an audacious uh expression of selfconfidence and selfbelief. What i initially did, i did music, and i love music as well, i mean that was huge huge passion of mine, i was in a band and i would try and make some of the lyrics funny, and i was kind of playing the role of a comedian within a band, so i was hiding in a band as a comedian, i think, we were call egsued by bear, exit pursued by bear, so its its a pretentious quote from uh from the winters. And the whole band was very pretentious and i was the the suppose the the main reason for that, but uh, but that was my way of kind of doing rock comedy or rock kind of theatrics, suppose, um, and then later on when that folded, i was kind of doing doing bits and pieces of acting, and then an opportunity erose to start a comedy troop, so again it was not me on my own, its me with two other to other people, so that was the kind of journey, suppose into comedy, theres a theres a a film isnt there . Its a bit like the office buse you are f of the office yeah and its its a bit rock group with that can and i know was actually influenced what was the name oh my god whats it called lads spinal spinal tap yeah this is spinal tap yeah i actually feel this is a weird thing to say but i feel like ive got a bit in common ricky draves like he was like a big influence of mine he was in a band he studied philosophy in college and he was like kind of doing his own thing and then kind of fell into this big massive uh comedy opportunity so i always felt id get to a certain age probably 40 and then these massive comedy opportunities would happen for me hasnt happened yet on not down south anyway i probably get more work lake in the middle east but anyway thats another story well now speaking about the middle east and more closer to home politics closer to home lot of your comedy revolves around politics and i read somewhere that you were influenced maybe slightly in your politics. The late late show one that you want to talk about that . Yeah, i think it was possibly 1984, i think it was, so i was kid um at that stage would have been probably 10, 10 or 11 and uh just i was watching it live suppose like most of iroland watch later at the time and uh forgive me i dont have all the all the members of the panel but it was jory adams was was giving an interview and i it was a thing we were watching it cuuse jorry adams was going to be on and i it was fairly air political house that i grew up in you people probably were sympathetic to the the republican uh struggle, but not in any demonstrative way really, and certainly from the media that we consumed, we kind of were to believe that jorry adams almost personified all the problems with the north, that almost like every aspect of the conflict was on his shoulders and that he bore personal responsibility for everything that had happened, i think it was the same night that gayborne refused to shake his hand and he basically. Sat down, didnt know that much about him before then, and uh, didnt know that much about the north either, and i think thats the key point that, you know, when i watch that interview, i think austin curry was part of the. Panel was basically a lineup of people trying to take pops at him and traduce them in a variety of ways and to pin, as i say the whole conflict on his shoulders and i just witnessed somebody really calmly uh without any emotion whatsoever and refue every accusation that was coming to him, but more importantly contextualized the conflict um for the first time, id never heard that before, i did, i hadnt heard anything about lawyaless paramilitaries before. I just thought there was one and i wasnt quite sure who they were fighting as kid, but i just knew the ira were fighting britain um and that the the impression i got from the the Mainstream Media down south was that you know ireland had won its independence um few countries didnt make the the great unfortunately and they were kicking up all this storm and violence and murder because they were prone to to murderousness um and we wish. They would just stop it cuz theyre really embarrassing us now a kind of an international level. Now im being a little bit playful when i say that, but that is roughly um the sense of the north i had as kid, so i wouldnt even say that i became like an irish republican watching that interview from joey adams, i just became somebody that was really interested in the north and that was that was the the main uh thing for me and because nobody had ever contextualized the conflict before and more importantly nobody had ever stated. The Important Role that the south had played or not played as as whichever way youd look it in creating the causes and conditions and nobody had ever kind of detailed that before, for me up until that moment it was kind of separate thing, it was happening in a different place, it was unconnected to us and as i say we wish that they would just stop it, um so definitely my head blew off my shoulders, i was like okay theres more to this than the mainstream. In the south is portraying, theres much more to this story than rte uh and the independent and the irish times are telling us cuz even i mean as a young kid i was just interested in the news and read bits and pits bits and pieces of the newspaper and stuff, but uh so yeah that there was another that there was another alternative version of this history out there was new to me and did that galvin is you to explore things further just politically i mean did you read up more on on what was happening in the north or yeah i mean within a few years i suppose i would have been a shinf. Uh supporter i suppose in school and that would have been unusual, i think in the south in that period as well, i remember there was there was two lads in my in my class in secondary school and we were both kind of interested in shin fain and we we went to a shin fain youth uh meeting and one the lads uh ken is name he had um he had a copy of unfublicked and i was reading on fublock on my lunch break and one of my teachers took me outside the door asked me was everything. Right at home, um, and i think, nothing that ive come across since encapsulates the complete misunderstanding of everything in the north that was going on down south at the time, and some people were doing it maliciously, you know, some people had agendas, but most people were just eating up the propaganda, and you see it today in the conflict thats going on right now in gaza, most people are just ordinary people going about their business, its the people. who are actually perpetrating and putting the propaganda out there, they have a responsibility, but your average person will become influenced by the propaganda that they that they consume, so i think most people down south just had this idea that there was just one perpetrator of violence in the north and and uh that jerry adams is a representative for them and so he needed to be neutralized and censored, and thats i suppose what was happening literally. Youve managed gaza there, ill get to that in a second, i just want to probe you more about your your involvement with. Reunification uh and when i say involvement, youve been a strong advocate for reunification. Why why is it important to you . I think its important to me because it connects directly to what i was saying earlier of growing up in a state that felt like it was completely disconnected from this other state. Um, as soon as i started reading, i realized that thats not the case at all and that theres a community of people in the north that dont feel disconnected, they feel the opposite, they feel. Like you know, not that they they they feel irish, they are irish, and they think of themselves as part of the island of ireland, and it would be their wish that that will be a 32 county republic. Um, i think if as as you move towards breaking that sense of separation between the two, and you can do it physically, so you know, im one of the few people i know in the south that goes to the north regularly, and im not saying that in any kind of a flex. Its its an embarrassing thing to say, um, the comedians on the scene, like Mario Rosenstock will be a good friend of mine, i think hes amazing, and he was telling me that i think he went to belfast. For the first time a couple of years ago and that would be typical, the mans been touring for 20 years and he was wondering what people kind of know his stuff whatever and like the gig was sold out, i think he did he either did, he either did ulster hall or somewhere massive anyway and everyone knew his stuff, everyone had been following his stuff and its just typical of that sense of that kind of like spiritual, emotional, practical disconnect i have uh be it in my work in my social life and you know making friends up here and stuff, that disconnect has never really been there for me, and if the disconnect isnt there, it makes no sense that there two different states. Um, also the history of of irish republicanism, mean if youre an irish republican and youre an antiimperialist, it would feel that its the fitting thing for the destiny of the country would be to to be reunited, and i would definitely make no apologies for that. It can sometimes be slightly controversial thing to say or slightly uncomfortable thing to say down south, and what im trying to do a little. With my work is to get to the root of why anyone should be made to feel that thats uncomfortable and i think you know something that weve spoken about a bit of bit off camera, young people are amazing bause young people are challenging that southern perspective all the time that its two separate states and two separate mentalities um so yeah so there theyre just some of the reasons why suppose as irish republican shocker i would want to see United Ireland. Youre still trying into the conversation, your weekly alternative probe of political events and Current Affairs around ireland. Im joined by our special guest, comedian and author, tog kicky. Moving to to events in gaza that weve been all horrified by this last few months, youve been a very strong advocate for uh palestinian selfdetermination, has that been, and we spoke earlier, you said you met many new friends, many new uh friends and middle east and stuff like that, tell us a bit about that. i think i think with palestine and its a little bit like with United Ireland as well, it comes back to something we touched on at the start of like in my drinking i was inauthentic, um, you have to be inauthentic to to kind of survive, you have to lie, um, you have to cheat, you have to let people down in order to keep doing it, and when i got sober, one thing i was very clear about for myself was to to actually protect myself, to stop myself from falling into. Possibility of drinking again and taking drugs again, which i know will ultimately lead if i relapse, ive no doubt that ill die and i dont want to die, so its its its very basic with me, i have to be authentic, so so if i have personal views about the conflict and if i have personal views about my perspective on wanting a United Ireland, needless to say a United Ireland that would be inclusive of everyone, not a narrow nationalism, ive no interest in that, if i have those views i need to. Reflect those views in my work in order to be authentic. Thats the way i would look at it. And i hope that doesnt sound too kind of, i dont, lavish or or pretentious or what not, but thats the way i do think. So, so for instance, if i would lose some Work Opportunities down south for being authentic in my views, that would be a, thats absolutely fine collateral damage, i need to be authentic. So, in the case of palestine, um, i have always felt that its its actually one of the most bizarrely, its one the most. Easy conflicts to understand, which is in direct opposition to the key israeli claim that its too complex for you and to ever understand, um, its just case, its a land grab, its settler colonialism, and i think if if im going to be authentic about ireland, i need to also be authentic about palestine and not worry too much about the backlash that you will get, also i have friends that are doing comedy in the states and canada and places like that, they have backlash, like they have ser, mean, they have serious repercussions to worry about, in ireland its less so, so i feel like you know many arab friends have sent me messages, mean if you saw my messages on instagram like you be, its its hard not to be crying at times because theres people saying you know its refreshing to hear someone from the west just highlight whats going on here like so its bas