To illustrate quite how low-key the person I’m going to be writing about is, let me start by telling you about someone else. Let me tell you about Martin. Martin is the taxi driver the fates assign me at Dublin Airport when I arrive in Ireland the day before the interview with the person I’m going to be writing about. Once the car doors are closed, Martin wastes no time in indicating to me that he, like the person I’m going to be writing about, is a little bit famous. Unlike that person, Martin is not low-key.
“Google ‘Dublin taxi-driver same-sex marriage’,” he instructs me, as we careen southwards into the city. But I don’t need to, because Martin’s already telling me about the time in 2015 when he was asked by an Australian news channel for his views on the imminent referendum in Ireland, deciding whether to permit same-sex marriage. His response, described by the reporter as “trademark Irish humour”, was this: “I’m in favour of same-sex marriage because I’ve been having the same sex with the wife for the last 30 years.” It got “millions of views on YouTube”, Martin says, but apparently his wife wasn’t too happy. “It was actually 35 years,” he admits. Classic Martin.
And what brings me to Dublin, Martin wants to know? Well, Martin, I’m interviewing an actor. Irish. Lives here.
“I’m a film buff,” Martin says.
Okay, then! Have a guess.
“Gabriel Byrne.”
No.
“Brendan Gleeson.”
No.
“Liam Neeson?” Still no, but he’s been in films with all thr—
“GOBSHIIIIITE!!” Martin yells out of the window at a woman crossing the road in front of his taxi, who scrambles back to the curb.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2022 de Esquire Singapore.
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