I was sensitive, creative and jolly. I loved He-Man, GI Joe and all those action toys. We lived on a cul-de-sac, so we could be out on the road all the time, kicking balls against curbs. There were loads of kids around.

Were you in a lot of clubs?

My mum encouraged us to be joiners. I was in the Scouts, I swam, I did karate and I was in a marching band. I developed a great love of music from that.

Marching band? Tell us more...

I played the saxophone and the clarinet. They gave you the instrument for free. You paid €1 a week and it was a way of learning. Many people from the area were in it. We only had seven pieces to play but you had to know them and know how to march. We used to do The Rose of Tralee and St Patrick’s Day Parade every year. We loved going to Tralee. We’d all sleep in sleeping bags in leisure centres for a week and you got to do a load of parades.

Is music still big in your life?

I started playing the recorder during lockdown. I got a teacher of Baroque music and I became quite fixated on it for a while.

We hear you were big into swimming too.

My brother and I swam competitively. We were in the pool before and after school for six years, we did all the galas. One day we sat our parents down and told them we had been swimming our whole lives and we wanted to give it up. And we did.

Choose three words to describe yourself.

Enthusiastic, playful and curious.

What drives you?

A connection with other people.

Is that why you got into theatre?

I like being part of a community as opposed to being creative on your own.

And why become a director?

I like leadership, but in different parts of my life I wouldn’t enjoy it. I like sharing my vision with people.

Tell us about the play you’re directing in the Abbey.

Luck Just Kissed You Hello by Amy Conroy is about three men at the bedside of their dying father – a gay man, a trans man and a rural married man who is expecting his first son. It’s darkly comic and fast paced.

In 2017, you went to puppetry school in Prague. How come?

I wasn’t as fresh as I wanted to be, and I wasn’t so clear on my position around making work. I wanted to take a step back and recharge.

Biggest lessons learned there?

I learned about being with people and about being with myself and to be easy on myself. I was probably hard on myself before but that was part of the drive which got me where I am today. Instead of pushing, I found another way – radical tenderness. Post Prague, I made an autobiographical dance work [Leaving], where I didn’t wear an awful lot of clothes – a postmodern piece – and my mother performed with me.

What are your experiences of homophobia?

It’s an old story. Of course it’s always there, and always has been. I’m a big hairy man now, so I probably present a lot less ‘twinkling gay’ than I used to when I was younger. But I’ve been chased and hit and all of those things. These [recent] attacks enrage me.

Do you feel comfortable enough to hold hands with a man in Dublin?

I don’t have anybody to hold hands with right now but there are many people who would be fearful for many reasons. It’s got a lot to do with government contempt for poor people which creates a fizzing rage on the streets.

Best advice given?

My art teacher told me I didn’t have to draw the same things as the other boys. She encouraged me to follow my own interests.

Best advice you give?

Go gently.

‘Luck Just Kissed You Hello’ by Amy Conroy opens at the Abbey Theatre on May 4; abbeytheatre.ie