Siobhan McSweeney on Taking Over Guardian Comfort Eating Podcast

Siobhán McSweeney sits down to demonstrate her absolute favorite snack combination: two matching slabs of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, two piles of Tayto cheese and onion crisps, and two cans of Guinness arranged neatly across the table. With theatrical flair, she commands, “Don’t swallow!” forcing a temporary freeze while holding a mouth full of the mix. The ritual demands taking the crisp, chocolate, and dark stout simultaneously, allowing them to melt and swill together into a rich, boozy, onion-tinged concoction. “See? It’s delicious! Just delicious!” she declares, keeping a watchful eye to ensure the exact eating protocol is respected step by step. McSweeney is watching me carefully to check I am putting all the ingredients into my mouth in the correct order. “It’s delicious. And seems to reconsider. “I mean … she wasn’t completely immune to all that, mcSweeney pauses for a moment here. All these things are true and I understand fully why any parent wouldn’t want that for their child.”.

The actor burst into global public consciousness back in 2018 throughDerry Girlsthe hit comedy series portraying Catholic schoolgirls set against the backdrop of the Troubles in 1990s Northern Ireland. McSweeney’s performance as the deadpan, eye-rolling headmistress Sister Michael earned her widespread acclaim and a Bafta award. The character built a massive cult following worldwide, catching the attention of prominent Hollywood figures. During a 2022 panel discussion, director Steven Spielberg enthusiastically name-checkedDerry Girlsraising his fist in a salute and declaring, “Those nuns!” McSweeney won a Bafta playing the girls’ headmistress, Sister Michael – a potty-mouthed, judo-loving nun – and can count Martin Scorsese as a fan.

For viewers accustomed to seeing her on screen in Sister Michael’s religious habit, meeting McSweeney in person reveals a striking difference. But today, McSweeney’s short, silver‑grey hair is brushed back from her face and she is dressed casually, in trousers and a simple top. Sister Michael is always lolling back in her chair and surveying you sardonically across a desk – but the real McSweeney leans forward and asks a lot of questions. The contrast highlights her energetic, curious personality outside of her iconic television roles. I thought feminism fights for me to be loud.

Since her breakthrough inDerry GirlsMcSweeney has consistently taken on characters defined by an intimidating, formidable edge. She played the bitingly sarcastic celebrity chef Della Fry inAmandalandand hosted channel 4’sThe Great Pottery Throw Down. Her television work has expanded across major broadcasts, including presenting roles and guest appearances on high-profile panel shows. Now, she is stepping into a major audio role as the new host ofComfort Eatingpodcast, taking over the helm to interview celebrity guests about their deeply personal relationship with food, snacks, and life experiences. And hosts the Irish version of The Traitors, in which she commands a pack of wolfhounds and wears a lot of ruffs, she plays the achingly sarcastic celebrity chef Della Fry in Amandaland. Which came out after her 40th birthday, m cSweeney was virtually unknown before the release of Derry Girls. According to she played opposite her Derry Girls co-star Nicola Coughlan last year in The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre, and, Being onstage is what she has always enjoyed the most (she remembers being. Too – even the most successful ones, presenting jobs pay better than TV shows do.

The choice of snack for the interview—Taytos, Dairy Milk, and Guinness—was directly inspired by McSweeney’s appearance as a guest onComfort Eatingback in 2021, where she originally revealed the signature combination. During that memorable guest episode, she also recounted an incident where a caterpillar dropped from a moth-infested ceiling straight into her pan of stir-fry. Rather than throwing the meal away, she simply ate it. “Listen: protein,” she remarks today with a grin, recalling the incident. “Free protein where you can get it.”

Over a lunch spread featuring a takeaway from Indian restaurant Dishoom alongside the Tayto crisps, McSweeney opens up about her motivation for taking on the host position. “I love doing this podcast because it annoys people when I eat,” she says while enjoying a fish curry. For McSweeney, publicly enjoying food as a woman who does not fit Hollywood’s stick-thin standards represents a conscious act of defiance. “They’ve been told that somebody like me should not feel good about themselves,” she explains, addressing societal pressures and fatphobia. Absolutely yeah – it’s embarrassing to have your child standing up there making a tit of themselves,” she says. “Also, Ireland in the 80s, you blend in – the idea of standing out is quite … ” she tails off thoughtfully. “I think it was a protective idea – when you are in the open you are open to abuse and people taking advantage, did she feel as if her parents were embarrassed about her? “Yeah. According to mcSweeney has, Publicly “I think I got 40 quid” in residuals when Derry Girls sold to Netflix.

Ever since entering drama school in the early 2000s, McSweeney faced constant pressure from industry figures demanding that she drop weight. She ticks off the list candidly: “Agents, casting directors, teachers.” She notes that throughout her career she has lived at various body sizes, yet critics and industry insiders constantly treated her physical presence as a problem requiring fixing. “People feel it’s unruly and it doesn’t behave,” she observes, reflecting on how society reacts to women who refuse to shrink themselves. She recalls how female peers at drama college and during secondary school in the 1990s routinely starved themselves under immense social pressure, adding, “I don’t know how I managed to escape it.” According to in previous interviews, McSweeney has, Casting directors explicitly told her that even though she was the funniest person in the audition room, they were going to give the part to a “prettier, younger, less funn.

Maintaining unwavering self-worth and body confidence under intense public scrutiny represents a victory of personal willpower. In 2023, following a wave of abusive online comments targeting her physical appearance, McSweeney delivered a masterclass in self-regard by tweeting: “I’m really lovely. I’m a delicious fatty and a brilliant actor.” While she notes that engaging with social media trolls is rarely worth the energy today due to toxic online environments, she admits to finding a distinct personal empowerment in refusing to conform. “I do get perverse pleasure in [responding to those] people who expect me to feel bad – by intentionally feeling good.” In the face of such vicious scrutiny, is not so much a failure of will as its opposite – proof that McSweeney has a will of absolute iron, it strikes me that continuing to like yourself and your body.

McSweeney credits her strong sense of independence largely to her late mother, describing her as “the kind of mam who would be round the back having a cigarette reading Dostoevsky.” Her mother raised her to seek fulfillment outside of male approval or traditional romantic expectations. “She wasn’t interested in me being attractive to men,” McSweeney reflects. “She just instilled this utter independence in me that didn’t centre in any way on a romantic relationship.”

Early Life in Cork and Journey to the Stage

Growing up in County Cork, Ireland, McSweeney was raised in a working-class household. Her father worked as a civil servant, while her mother ran a local cottage industry baking bread and cakes to sell to nearby shops. From an early age, McSweeney harbored a deep desire to act, secretly wishing on a star every night as a child that she would one day pursue a career on the stage and screen. However, pursuing artistic careers was far removed from her family’s everyday reality, as her parents knew no professional actors and strongly encouraged her to pursue stable, traditional employment. According to she, As a child she would wish on a star every night that she would become an actor, and tells me that she once spent an entire day at school pretending she was in a sitcom, pausing every now and again to play the laugh track in her head. “Or I’d look to the camera” – she mimes whirling her head around to lock eyes with an imaginary film crew. “How obnoxious. According to speaking to the Irish Times in August, McSweeney, Anybody in the creative industries has “an angel and a devil on your shoulder, and the devil quite often is your parents going, ‘Don’t embarrass us. But the years she spent trying and failing to get parts were gruelling. “I taught, I waitressed, I pulled pints, I went on the dole, I worked at music festivals,” she says. “And I was shit at every single one of them.”.

She initially followed a conventional path, attending university to study science and later working in clinical research. However, her passion for performance persisted, eventually leading her to leave her steady job, move to London, and enroll at the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama. The transition required immense determination, navigating intense competition and industry biases while staying true to her authentic voice. My teeth are yellow and wonky that’s true.

Work Ethic and Looking Forward

Discussing her current routine, McSweeney admits that five years of relentless work schedules have shaped her day-to-day eating habits. “It’s so boring, but I’ve been working so hard for the last five years that all my food is comfort food and I try to make it as healthy as possible,” she explains. Her regular home cooking consists primarily of nutrient-dense bone broths and homemade ramen bowls. When indulging in pure comfort, her go-to treat remains white bread toasted until nearly black, generously spread with Kerrygold butter that must be sliced extremely thick—”sliced like cheese.”

Looking ahead to a rare break in her calendar, McSweeney reveals she is about to enjoy her very first day off after 26 consecutive days of working. With an empty fridge at home, her plan for the day off is simple: ordering a takeaway feast to celebrate. Asked if her mother would approve of her treating herself in this way, McSweeney smiles warmly. “Yes,” she says. “And I’m going to buy it with the money I earned being a clown.”