Hilary Rose: ‘I still get recognised and approached every single day because of The Young Offenders’

Actress and podcaster Hilary Rose is renowned for her star turn as put-upon matriarch Mairéad in the quintessential Cork show

Hilary Rose: ‘Sometimes things just hit a slipstream and it’s the right time for that thing to happen.’ Photo: Daragh McSweeney/Provision

Tanya Sweeney

The Young Offenders might have Cork DNA running through it, but the Irish comedy that counts Cillian Murphy as a fan has also found a deeply appreciative audience in Asia.

“Apparently it’s massive in China,” Hilary Rose, who stars in the series as put-upon matriarch Mairéad, says. “We met this lovely Japanese lady who became a fan, and she took photos of the locations by frame, travelled to Cork on her own, found the locations and then photographed her photo against [the locations]. We ended up contacting her to tell her it was amazing, and then she travelled all the way back to meet us. It was so random.”