Features/Reports: 16 Oct 2017
Peter McGoran

Irish comedian Sean Hughes dies, aged 51

The comedian, who rose to fame in the '90s from appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and his own sitcom Sean's Show, passed away this morning.

According to International Business Times, the comedian was believed to have been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and was taken to north London's Whittington Hospital.

He also made several appearances as an actor later on in his career, including playing a minor role in the cult 1991 movie The Commitments.

In a 2013 interview with Hot Press, Sean, who was attending AA at the time, spoke candidly about his relationship with alcohol.

“I feel I’ve done all my drinking," he told Roisin Dwyer. "I’m not going to get anything new out of it and I don’t see the point in drinking, I don’t miss it. Some of my friends are in AA and they’re awful to hang out with because it’s just addictive personalities who are swapping one addiction for another. If it works for them, Jesus, I’m really happy.

“I was drinking a lot out of boredom,” he continues. “I thought, ‘You’re not doing this for any sort of fun. I was starting to spiral a little. So I thought I should stop. So I let it spiral a bit more because I knew I was going to stop… but it was getting to the stage where I’d go, ‘Have I got a bit of a cough. I should have a hot whiskey!’”

Abstinence has caused him to re-evaluate his social circle.

“The only thing that I can’t stand is that if you’re drinking you’re pretty much an asshole with an alibi,” he notes. “So now, since I don’t drink, if people say, ‘You were an asshole last night.’ I just have to say, ‘Yeah, that’s my personality, we shouldn’t hang out!’”