Cillian Murphy has said that returning to live in Ireland was the “best decision” he ever made.
The Cork native appeared on the Brendan O’Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday morning alongside Professor Pat Dolan to discuss the book they edited together titled Ionbhá: The Empathy Book for Ireland.
Brendan said: “I notice whenever I read pieces about you, Cillian, by Irish people, there’s this great pride that, ‘He could have lived in San Francisco, he used to live in London – but he came back to Dublin to rear his kids.'”
“So presumably, you feel this is a kind of a healthy place to raise kids rather than elsewhere,” Brendan continued.
The Peaky Blinders actor replied: “I think so.”
“I’ve always been very proud of the fact that I am Irish, and my wife is Irish, and the kids were of a certain age, we wanted them to be close to their [grand] parents. Just there’s less people here! That was a consideration!”
“It was the best decision we made, coming back, 100%. It really was.”
Asked whether returning to live in Ireland made his life more complicated, Cillian said: “Ah, not really. You’re always away when you’re working, do you know? You’re rarely at home, that rarely happens. So, you’re just away from a different place, and I’d rather be in Ireland.”
“I think that’s a narrative of Irish people to go away and to come back, you know? It seems to be.”
“Certainly, in my game, it seems to be people go away for long periods to kind of establish yourself or whatever it might be, to prove that you can play other parts other than [an] Irish person and to come home.”
Brendan then questioned: “And it feels different when you’re back, then. Do you feel different in yourself? You feel home in a way that you don’t when you’re away,” to which Cillian joked: “Yeah, I just really like Irish people!”
