Jarlath Regan

Your Hero of 2023?
Katie Taylor. Doing what she did in the manner in which she did it, after everything she’s been through… just an amazing Irish Rocky story. Written off. Told by everyone she was done. I want to see the film of her life now. She united the country during one of its darkest weeks and reminded us of something bigger than all of us. She is as Jimmy Magee would have said, “Different class”.

Katie Taylor. Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Villain of 2023?
People who read WhatsApp messages and don’t reply to them for ages. Disgraceful, morally corrupt bastards the lot of them. They should be locked up for the emotional turmoil they cause. I say this knowing full well that I have done it too. Maybe we aren’t the villains of 2023. I’ll have to get back to you on that. WhatsApp me later on.

Best Personal Moment?
20kg on the button. I was fully sure I had over-packed. The bag was almost impossible to lift onto the scales. The Ryanair assistant gave me a look as if to say, “Not a chance that yoke is underweight!” Popped it on the thing. 20kg on the nose. I felt like streamers should have popped out of the ceiling. I was delirious with happiness. The assistant wouldn’t give me the high five. Said it was against company policy.

Best Movie or TV show?
Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse didn’t get the praise it deserved. We all focused on Oppenheimer and Barbie while this piece of art blew audience’s minds out their ears. I think it’s harder and harder for any movie to make an impact the way they used to. Apocalypse Clown was my absolute favourite Irish film of 2023.

Best record?
Janelle Monáe The Age Of Pleasure. This lady just gets better and better and better. I can’t believe the quality of this album. Song for song it’s up there with any album. And I mean any album. I truly believe that if she was around in the ‘80s we would view her as we view Prince.

Best book?
Big Beacon by Alan Partridge. So good I bought the audiobook too. Having Steve Coogan read this book to you will have you howling on your bus, train, walk or run. You will look mad but it’s worth it. So, so funny from beginning to end. Steve Coogan proved this year that he can do anything. His performance as Jimmy Saville was so unsettling it’s hard to believe he is the same person who wrote this book.

Best thing you saw online?
It’s such a hard question. We are absolutely spoiled today really. When I think about the amount of stuff I have consumed online this year for free in most cases it’s bananas. When you consider what it cost to just buy an album when I first fell in love with music. My head spins thinking about the media options my son has. I’m going to go with Herself, the Clare Dunne movie that got its first showing on RTE and the BBC this year. I made my parents watch it online and even on a tiny screen it tore their hearts out, crushed them and put them back together again. I think it’s an all-time classic.

Your hope for next year?
An end to the two wars would be great, but is that a crazy thing to hope for? Maybe we could just hope that people are less dickish to each other online and in person. Again, probably too much to hope for. I hope that I get one day in the year when I don’t have to roll my eyes to heavens and think “Why are people like this!”

What tickled your funny bone?
Roddy Doyle’s Peter Pan at The Gate was an absolute triumph. His retelling of the classic British tale was everything you could hope for and more. I broke my heart laughing and got a lump in my throat at the same time. They’re always banging on about the magic of Peter Pan. I never got it. I get it now, thanks to Roddy.

• Tickets for Jarlath’s new tour ‘Work In Progress’ are available from www.jigser.com/gigs.