Aoife Dunne - Mad Hatter Q&A: "There are so many artists that have marked different epochs of my life – and this time of my life is well and truly being marked by the incredible CMAT"

Who would be the last person you would invite to your birthday party?
Conor McGregor.

Who would be the first person you would invite to your birthday party?
My best friend Bethani.

Favourite saying?
“Ah sure, you’ll have that.” It just sums up the Irish resilience perfectly.

Favourite record?
I started listening to In Rainbows after my mum died, and it helped me break in better ways. ‘Reckoner’ is one of the greatest tracks ever made in my opinion.

Favourite book?
My friend Colin Walsh wrote Kala, and it nearly broke me, in every way.

Favourite film?
I have such a special place in my heart for Big Fish. I watched it after my mum died on repeat, and it helped me feel so connected to the immortality of life through stories.

Favourite author?
I’ve gone on a binge of all Claire Keegan’s short stories.

Favourite actor / actress?
Sharon Horgan is class. She is so natural on screen and always brings such humanity, and complexity to her characters that isn’t portrayed enough in female characters

Favourite musician?
There are so many artists that have marked different epochs of my life – and this time of my life is well and truly being marked by the incredible CMAT.

CMAT at All Together Now on August 2nd, 2025. Copyright Trevor McGrath/ hotpress.com

TV programme?
I still think The Wire is one of the greatest TV shows ever made.

Favourite TV personality?
Jameela Jamil sticks it to the man. I love how fierce she is.

Most desirable date?
I love going to gigs with my partner. We dance together and he cries as much as me.

If you weren’t pursuing your present career, what other career might you have chosen?
I often think what a good lawyer I would have made. Injustice hurts my core and I absolutely love a fight for rights. I think I would look good in one of those wigs too.

Biggest thrill?
The cold water hitting your skin in winter. Coming alive in the open water, with the ancient Irish landscape behind you, under a pink blushed winter sky.

Biggest disappointment?
All the orgasms I faked when I was in my twenties. I don’t know why so many young women did it. Years of mediocre sex, all because I didn’t have the courage to say what I liked.

Your concept of heaven?
Being surrounded and swaddled by all kinds of dogs forever.

Your concept of hell?
Being stuck in one of those schmoozy events. Give me a smoking area with strangers too high to say their own name, but caught in a DMC about whether true love exists in a neo-liberal capitalist world any day.

Greatest ambition?
I’d love to write an Irish-style Fleabag.

Period of history you’d most like to have lived in and why?
The late ’60s in the US seemed cool. I would have loved to have been part of the feminist movement back then – I am constantly on the verge of burning my bras now anyways.

If you weren’t a human being, which animal would you have chosen to be?
A cat. They know the finer things in life and don’t feel the need to impress anyone.

If you were told that the world was ending tomorrow morning, how would you react/what would you do?
Dance outside half-naked with my friends to good music.

Your nominee for the world’s best-dressed person?
My friend Matja. She’s so chic and effortlessly stylish.

Favourite term of abuse?
“He’s an absolute dose.”

Biggest fear?
Being accused of something I haven’t done. The idea that there are people on death row that are completely innocent brings me to a cold sweat.

Humanity’s most useful invention?
Musical instruments. If ever I worry about the state of the world, I remember that we as a species made music, and I feel soothed by that thought alone.

Humanity’s most useless invention?
Stanley cups. I hate them so much. How someone has made something so oversized, cumbersome, and ugly – and managed to make it seem appealing – is the reason modern society is doomed, in my opinion.

Tickets for Aoife Dunne's  Good Grief tour – currently at Edinburgh Fringe, and coming to Waterford, Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Manchester, Liverpool and London – are available here.