1. What was the last good film you saw? What sort of films do you most like to watch?
Pedro Almadovar’s ‘Volver’ is a great exploration of contemporary Spain as seen through the lives of a group of women in Madrid. Penelope Cruz acts brilliantly and the action sucks you in to an emotional roller-coaster ride. I’m also a Jim Jarmsuch fan as you’ll see later on. “Stranger than Paradise” explored the life of a recent immigrant in America and some great moments.  “Night on Earth” was a great film about six taxi-rides in six different cities around the world. I always wanted him to film a seventh scene in Dublin!

2. What was the last good book you read? What sort of books do you most like to read? Has any one book particularly influenced your life or political thinking?
I love the Dirty Realists. I’m a Raymond Carver and Richard Ford fan. I heard Richard give a reading from “he Sportswriter” at the Kilkenny Arts Festival a few years ago and I’ve enjoyed anything of his that I’ve read. Italo Calvino is a long-time favourite, as well as Annie Proulx. Now that I think of it though, Tintin books and Babette Cole’s fantastic stories are both at the top of my reading lists at the moment, as my 6 and 4 year olds don’t share my taste in literature for their bed-time reading from their Dad. The last good book I read was Robert Fisk’s “The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East”

3. Do you go to the theatre? If so, what sort of plays do you like?
I saw, or should I say started to see Beckett’s waiting for Godot a few months ago in the Gate. It was brilliant, but unfortunately I was called away to St. Patrick’s Cathedral half-way through, as the Afghani Hunger Strike there was at a critical point. I guess I can say that Barry McGovern and Alan Stamford’s acting was superb in the first act, but I’m, shall we say, awaiting Act Two.
Athol Fugard’s ‘Master Harold and the Boys’ was a powerful commentary on  South Africa in the 1950’s and it had a great run at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire. The acting was superb, and I think it had an all African cast in the production that I saw. Conor McPherson’s ‘Shining City was a wonderful commentary on a Dublin psychiatrist, who gradually changes places with his client. That all sounds like I’m at the theatre every second evening. In reality I’m lucky if I get to see a play every six months.

4. What music do you most enjoy listening to?
I’m listening to Ry Cooder’s soundtrack from ‘Chavez Ravine’ obsessively at the moment. Behind the music there’s the sad story of urban renewal gone wrong in Los Angeles just after the war when anti-communist fervour reached its peak and an existing community was razed to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to move in from the East Coast. Tom Waits and his Italian equivalent Paolo Conte also figure high on my play-list. I’m always returning to Blue Note re-issues from the last few years, but I still have the ‘Best of the Blue Note on vinyl’ that I bought back in 1985 in New York. Art Blakey’s “Moanin’” and Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” are superb tracks. I saw Nina Simone at the Point about five years ago, shortly before she died, and it was incredible to hear her sing “Mississippi Goddamn” live.

5. What are your favourite television programmes?
“Life on Mars” on the BBC really grabbed me over the summer. It’s a great storyline of a 2006 detective inspectors Sam Tyler (played by John Simm) who is transported back to the 1970’s.  Annie Cartwright (played by Liz White) never left the 1970’s and teases him about his paranoia and bewilderment about being sent back in time. I’m hoping that they film a second series. Otherwise I tend to ignore the telly apart from news fixes every now and again.

6. Are you interested in the visual arts? If so, who are your favourite artists?
Before I go any further I have to name check my sisters Siobhán, Gráinne and Susan, and my brother-in-law Briain Vahey, all of whom are highly accomplished artists. That should keep me out of trouble. Apart from their contribution, Ireland has a great visual arts scene at the moment.  I have a wonderful John Graham black and white abstract print which is one of my favourites. I also like Cora Cummins’ landscapes, and one of her works hangs in my Dáil office. 

7. You are banished to a desert island and can only take one book, one movie and one piece of music – what would they be?
Don deLillo’s “Underworld”, because that’s the only way I’ll ever finish it. He’s a great author, but I just seem to be treading water half way through it. As regards movies I know I should name-check Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” which is a great documentary about Climate Change, but I’ve seen it recently, so I won’t be bringing that along. I guess my movie has to be Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law”. It’s a humorous prison escape story, set in the Southern US, but I love the acting – John Lurie, Roberto Benigni and Tom Waits. See it if you can. My music selection would be Bono and Pavarotti’s “Ms. Sarajevo”. The song has great memories for me – I was listening to it the day I finished my thesis, and I’ve also been to Sarajevo for a friend’s wedding a few years back. It is a beautiful, haunting cultured city.