Tommy Tiernan tells story of how he first got to know Michael D. Higgins

Stephen Porzio

In a JOE interview, the comedian also talked about whether he would ever get involved in politics.

Tommy Tiernan is the latest guest on JOE’s podcast You Must Be Jokin’ and during the episode, he was asked about how he first got to know President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins.

And people may be surprised to learn that the comedian and politician actually became friends by being regular commuters on the Dublin to Galway train route in the ’90s.

Tiernan explained: “I moved to Galway in the late 1980s and Michael was a TD at the time but he was also working as a lecturer so would just be around.

“When I first started doing gigs up in Dublin in the mid-to-late 1990s, I’d have nowhere to stay at night. There used to be a gig on in the City Arts Centre that would finish at about 1.30am to 2am and they’d start letting people onto the Galway train at 6.00am and I’d wander the streets for four hours.

“I used to walk the streets basically and nothing bad ever happened to me. No one ever gave me guff or anything like that. And I’d make my way up to Houston then for about 6am and they’d open the train doors, you’d fall asleep.

“And Michael would often be on the train going up and down to Dublin from Galway and I just sat beside him a few times, got talking to him and that’s how I got to know him.”

Tiernan was full of praise for his presidential friend, saying of him:

“He’s a great man… He’s a top-class intellectual and there aren’t that many of those in the country.

“He knows more than anybody who ever criticises him and he speaks well. He speaks from the heart and the brain. He’s to be treasured while he’s there. He’s brilliant.”

As for Tiernan himself ever getting involved in politics (something which was recently rumoured), the comedian confessed to hosts Eric Lalor and Willa White that he doesn’t think it would be for him.

On the topic, he added: “There has to be justice for everybody and you have to work towards that. It has to be equality.

“The weak and the poor have to be the number one concern of the political establishment. I find that kind of thing inspiring… Irish politics still seems a lot about favours.”

Also, during the episode, Tiernan was asked which guest on his RTÉ talk show made the biggest impact on him.

In response, he named Irish actress Brenda Fricker, leading him to tell a hilarious story involving her and Al Pacino at the 1990 Oscars.

Pacino was at the awards show because he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his role in the action crime flick Dick Tracy.

Fricker, meanwhile, had won the Best Actress Oscar the previous year for My Left Foot and as such was presenting the award for Pacino’s category.

As Tiernan recounted: “She’s backstage and she sees Al Pacino over near these stairs.

“And he’s [mimes dry heaving] and she said: ‘What’s wrong?’ and he’s going: ‘The stress of this, the stress. I can’t.’ He had never won an Oscar before.

“And she’s holding the envelope for best actor and she says to him: ‘Al,’ she points to the envelope, and says: ‘You have it.’

“He goes: ‘Seriously,’ she goes: ‘Yeah, yeah’.”

The problem was, however, she hadn’t opened the envelope.

“So she goes out to present the Oscar,” Tiernan recounts. “‘And the Oscar goes to… Joe Pesci [for Goodfellas].'”