Clelia Murphy has played Niamh Cassidy in the long-running television drama series Fair City for more than 20 years, but the actress, from Castleknock in Dublin, has taken on a variety of other roles during that time.
Her theatre work includes the touring productions of Boom and György Vidovszky’s Spring Awakening, and she has film credits in Grabbers and the 2010 cable television movie Gift of the Magi. She worked with John Boorman on his radio play The Hitlist and, earlier this year, appeared in Kinsey One Through Five for RTE Radio Drama on One.
Clelia trained at Dublin’s Gaiety School of Acting and has an MA in screenwriting. Last year, she sang and danced on stage for the first time as Lulubelle LaVelle in the musical Elvis is my Daddy. Now we’re about to see her funny side in RTE2’s Nowhere Fast, the new Alison Spittle comedy which starts in the autumn.
Clelia’s 18-year-old daughter, Clarabelle, also appears in the six-part series, about millennials in the Midlands. She and Clarabelle live in Dublin.
Are you a saver or a spender?
I’m neither. I’m very practical — I believe in getting only what you need. I have downsized my own life. To be owned by your possessions is the worst feeling. I find value in things that have been passed on from previous generations; that’s what I find space for.
Advertisement
What was your first job and how much did it pay?
I worked in the Gresham hotel, on O’Connell Street in Dublin, and got paid IR£1.27 (€1.61) an hour. I did teas, made beds and did breakfasts. I was about 17 and it was a summer job. It was horrendous, but it formed me.
What was one of your best gifts?
I didn’t want a 21st-birthday party, because I thought it was a waste of money. So I chipped in with my grandparents, Clelia and Jimmy, and my mother, Savina, and bought a car. I got a 1976 Volkswagen Beetle for IR£1,000. I thought it was the greatest thing ever, until I drove it and found the ignition and handbrake were gone, and fumes meant I had to drive with the windows down. When I got pregnant soon after and needed a safe car, I scrapped it and bought a Fiat Punto.
What is the best financial advice you ever received?
Maeve McGrath, who played Lorraine in Fair City in the 1990s, before the house fell on her and squashed her, made me get a pension. So I have had one since I was 20, which was great financial advice to get at that age. I have always been lucky to be surrounded by people with wisdom.
What has been your best bargain?
My best-value purchase was a piano for Clarabelle. The hours of joy it has brought mean it has more than paid for itself. It’s a basic piano called a Young Chang.
What has been your biggest splurge?
The gym. It’s a luxury, but it’s a necessity, too. I need it for my health, my work and my head. It’s also good for forming a structure in your day.
Advertisement
Is Ireland expensive compared with other countries you’ve visited?
Tuscany seemed to be good value. You can get a good bottle of wine in rural Italy for a few euros. The food is so good there and it doesn’t cost a lot. I think Dublin is up there with any European capital. I always judge the cost of living by the price of a blow dry in a good salon. It’s creeping up to nearly €40 in places, which means we’re in the boom time again, but what follows a boom is a bust — haven’t we learnt that from the past?
Can money buy happiness?
Absolutely. Anyone who says that it can’t has never been poor, but should you be dependent on money for happiness? No. That’s an external factor for an internal thing. Of course, it can make life an awful lot easier; to say that it doesn’t is facetious.
Which generation has it the best?
Everything has checks and balances. So, for example, buying a house now is a big challenge, but in the past, there were other struggles around it: interest rates were insane —you were paying 20% and income tax was huge, too. Now, there’s a housing crisis. The next generation have their own problems to figure out. They will have their own anecdotes to tell their children in 20 years’ time. I think it comes down to this: if you’re good in the game of life, you’re laughing.