Cork soap actor and writer recalls teaching Irish to U2 band members

A scriptwriter for Ros na Rún, and recent finalist in the Writers’ Guild of Ireland Zebbie Awards, Peadar Cox has a U2 story from which he demurs from dining out on – because it ages him.

Before this Glanmire-based writer, actor and former teacher worked on the Irish language soap opera screened on TG4, he taught Irish to the U2 band members, apart from Adam Clayton, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin.

It was his first teaching job. Peadar swears that he is only a few years older than the members of the mega-famous band, who recently celebrated 50 years together as a group.

Peadar, who studied English and Irish at (UCD) University College Dublin, fell into teaching with a degree that was well suited to the profession.

He recalls that Larry Mullen was good at Irish while Bono “was OK at it. I have a letter from him saying he wasn’t the greatest at Irish but that I was the best teacher, or something like that.”

In an effort to make learning Irish more enjoyable, Peadar used to teach the pupils Irish songs such as Báidín Amhlaoibh. He didn’t have to encourage Paul Hewson, Dave Evans and Larry Mullen when it came to music.

“They had already started playing music,” recalls Peadar.

“I remember walking by one of the classrooms after school hours where they would be rehearsing. They got a lot of support from the teachers in Mount Temple.”

While U2 had a game plan, Peadar’s own career was never really planned. He says he followed his heart.

Born in Mullingar, the eldest of ten, Peadar and his family moved around a lot as his father was in the army and was stationed in different barracks around the country. He lived in Galway, Castlerea, and Athlone, followed by Kildare, before going to UCD.

He was interested in performance and got parts in Gilbert & Sullivan operas while at boarding school in Castlerea.

Around that time, he wrote sketches. But at UCD, Peadar says he didn’t feel confident enough to act in plays at Dramsoc.

“Then one day in third year at the Freshers’ exhibition, a guy grabbed me. He knew I spoke Irish and he signed me up to the Cumann Dramaíochta (drama group). So I had a fantastic year there doing plays in Irish.”

After university, Peadar says he was “very keen” to get into RTÉ – “to do anything. I think I wanted to be in front of the camera. I applied for anything that came up.

“I applied for a news reading job but didn’t get that. I applied for a radio producer job but hadn’t a clue what that was. RTÉ came back to me. They knew I had Irish. I got to do some radio plays.

“I was just a young fellow, working with people I admired. But then it all stopped and I started teaching at Mount Temple.”

After four years there, Peadar decided to come to Cork to practise his yoga and run a health centre with Tony Quinn.

Peadar, who studied yoga - a passion of his – used to think he would combine it with psychology. But he had dropped psychology after first year at UCD as he didn’t like the approach taken there.

After 15 years at the health centre, Peadar wanted to do other things and says his career at Academy Street came to a natural end.

To earn a crust, he resumed teaching for a while, on a part-time basis. He took singing lessons with John O’Flynn of the Irish Operatic Repertory Company.

“Within a couple of months, I was on the stage of the Cork Opera House, in the chorus, doing La Traviata. I was in heaven. I just loved it.

“It was a great time in Cork in the 1990s. You had David Gordon doing choreography. Then I started taking acting classes with Catherine Mahon-Buckley. We did Big Maggie. I got a good review from Declan Hassett (formerly of the Echoand Examiner.)

“I went on to do plays with Pat O’Driscoll. At the time, TG4 was starting and someone said I should try there with my Irish.”

While Peadar was disappointed that he didn’t get work out of an audition with TG4, some time later, “someone gave my name to someone else and I got into Ros na Rún in 2001 and stayed acting there for ten years.”

Peadar played the villain, Daniel McLaughlin. The soap opera had some hard-hitting storylines over the years, including one on domestic abuse, with Peadar playing opposite Joan Sheehy (who played his on-screen wife Nancy.)

The plot got a lot of attention at the time and both actors got IFTA nominations out of it.

The first gay kiss on Irish television happened on Ros na Rún in 1997 which, says Peadar, was an example of how the soap pushed the boat out.

The Irish language has served Peadar well. He does some work coaching actors in Irish, including the star Stephen Rae.

“Stephen was in the film Black ’47. He is very committed to Irish and I worked with him on it.”

Peadar joined the Ros na Rún script team, having realised the character of Daniel was unlikely to live on long term.

Each episode of the soap is 30 minutes long. There is the main story line and three other sub stories.

“You structure it and create scenarios,” explains Peadar. “Writing dialogue is what I like the most.”

Irish has made something of a comeback and Peadar is delighted to have carved out a career as Gaeilge.

“We didn’t speak Irish at home but my mother was a teacher and was very good at Irish,” he says.

“There was always a very favourable attitude towards it.”

For Peadar, it has been fortuitous.